For the third in 澳门王中王 South West鈥檚 current series of People, Place, Planet events, co-chairs of 澳门王中王 Somerset Mark Raby and Tom Gascoyne welcomed Alison Brooks of , whose work has garnered countless awards including the Stephen Lawrence Prize and the Stirling Prize. With the realisation of an eagerly anticipated new Maggie鈥檚 Centre in Taunton designed by her practice recently thrown into doubt, the audience were especially keen to find out more.
Gracing our shores since 1988 and producing contextually sensitive, understated and beautiful buildings through her eponymous practice since 1996, Canadian-born Alison Brooks presented recent projects under the unifying theme of 鈥榙welling鈥�.
She intends the word in its widest possible sense to mean the act of inhabiting any space for any reason. To be successful, it must confer human wellbeing balanced responsibly with nature and fitting harmoniously into the cultural memory of place.
Within that overall model, her method is to focus on archetypes 鈥� architectural forms that endure because they are treasured, valued, and loved 鈥� as starting points for generating new forms.
Her respect for this defining adaptive resilience was instilled while growing up in Welland, Ontario, when its early twentieth-century vertical bridge was consigned to history by a newer, taller but culturally dead road bridge. Resonating to Gertrude Stein鈥檚 famous lament about the loss of built heritage, 鈥淭here is no there, there鈥�, Brooks set off for London in search of places with 鈥榟istory, quality and identity鈥�, which she found in abundance.
Seeking inspiration in archetypes is not new. The magic, and what marks Brooks out as one of the pre-eminent architects of our day, is the way that she distils their DNA and redeploys it for contemporary needs and, indeed, construction methods.
At , her practice healed a patch of postwar 鈥榝ailed utopia鈥� by restoring the Victorian urban grain with new terraced housing, a design whose evolution can be traced back through earlier projects, including Accordia in Cambridge. With comparatively high ceilings, many cores, dual-aspects, sheltered inset balconies, and a graduated shift from public to private realm, the scheme delivered 43 homes, 40% of which were affordable.
At , shortlisted for the 澳门王中王 South West Awards 2020/21, we have an atrium house. The clients wanted to remodel and extend a Victorian farmhouse to accommodate them, their extended family, and their collection of African tribal artworks. In deliberate counterpoint to the farmhouse, the new extension is low and wrapped in dark cladding, the better to disappear from view to satisfy planning constraints. Inside, its generous central atrium-cum-dining area is anything but dark, the asymmetrical plan and elevation framing magnificent views out and big windows letting light in.
Exeter College鈥檚 new reinvents Oxford鈥檚 quadrangle archetype to fit on a long, narrow site in Jericho. Retaining an Edwardian fa莽ade at its eastern end, the new building鈥檚 parti is what Brooks describes as an 鈥楽-shaped quadrangle鈥� pierced lengthways by two glazed ellipsoidal cloisters that meet in a central social learning space. The packed programme is cleverly enclosed under a curving roof of stippled stainless steel shingles that eschew convention by flowing onto the fa莽ade with all the craftsmanship beloved by William Morris, one of Exeter College鈥檚 alumni.
The pentagonal S5 plot on the northern tip of Argent鈥檚 will accommodate a tower 鈥� 158 homes above, mixed-use below 鈥� that Brooks describes as 鈥榓 courtyard building, densified to make it viable鈥�. Taking its cues from St Pancras鈥檚 arches and the language of bricks that characterises the area鈥檚 industrial heritage, her practice is working closely with Laing O鈥橰ourke to manufacture brickwork panels offsite for a quicker build, less wastage, fewer deliveries to site, and safer working.
Her whistle-stop tour came to an end with the attached to Musgrove Park hospital in Taunton. Designed as a fresh take on the pavilion building in response to its location overlooking a park, the scheme has recently been stopped because of local opposition. Conceived as a timber building, the two-storey design comprised a central atrium and cooking space, with therapy and admin rooms branching off in four wings, all topped by concave roofs and set in a landscape of native species.
Saddened but not disheartened that the project is currently stymied, Brooks said that the best way to support the scheme was to support Maggie鈥檚 cancer charity for the incredible work they do. Indeed, their guiding principle 鈥� to create, in Founder Charles Jencks鈥� words, the 鈥榓rchitecture of hope鈥欌�� is one that should suffuse all that architects do.
Words by Matt Thompson
