Margaret Justin Blanco White was trained at the Architectural Association where she graduated in 1934. She began her career designing early modern movement housing designs, predominantly in Cambridge and went on to work on pioneering design proposals for housing, educational and community buildings with Mary Crawley and Erno Goldfinger. By the end of the 1940s, Blanco White had taken a post with the Civil Service in Edinburgh where she played a significant role in the research, design and development of policy for statutory development plans for Scottish cities and boroughs during the 1950s.

Architecture Work

Shawms House at Conduit Head Road, Cambridge (1938), RIBA Industrial housing competition entry with Erno Goldfinger and Mary Crawley (1939), Building Centre: School and holiday camp competition with Erno Goldfinger and Mary Crawley (1939), Leith Fort Housing in Edinburgh with Rachel Wilson and Albert Abbott (1957): 21 storey point block, 7 storey access deck housing an courtyard housing - won Civic Trust commendation in 1966, 12 Lansdowne Road in Cambridge with David Croghan (1961), Redesign of the studio of the artist John Piper in 1960s.

Research

Blanco White wrote a number of influential articles and books in the fields of housing and education, her research in health becoming a definitive reference across the UK. Her research and articles were published in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Focussing initially on: planning, modern methods of construction and urban and rural housing, she was also increasingly involved in research and development in the fields of health and education. In 1948 she wrote "The School Looks Around" with Elizabeth Layton, it waspublished by the Association for Education in Citizenship (whose board included Anthony Eden and then Prime Minister Clement Attlee). It promoted the concept of the local survey by school pupils as an adventurous process, a "voyage of discovery into the life, history and organisation of the locality". She wrote what was to become a definitive work on the design of hospital casualty and out-patient departments, a book later used across the United Kingdom. Justin Blanco White was awarded an OBE for her work as superintending architect of the Scottish Office in June 1975.