Alison Brooks

Alison Brooks Architects designed "Brass" building, Accordia, Cambridge, England

Alison Brooks (born 1962)[1] is an award-winning architect whose practice, Alison Brooks Architects, is based in London, UK.[2]

Background

Brooks was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She finished her studies in architecture at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 1988. She moved to the UK and worked with designer Ron Arad. In 1991 she became a partner in Ron Arad Associates. In 1996 she founded her own practice, Alison Brooks Architects, based in London.[1] While she worked for Ron Arad Associates she worked on projects such as the Foyer of the Tel Aviv Opera. She said: "We were doing something in Tel Aviv which was a completely free form piece of architecture inside a really big, corporate piece of architecture. We were doing it as a kind of protest piece, and we thought that the whole world was going to stop and take notice, and hundreds of hundreds of operas were going to call us up and ask us to do rheum next opera building, which of course that did it happen."[3] Although they did not receive commissions for other opera houses, they did receive commissions for other projects in London, including the restaurants Belgo Noord and Beldo Centraal.[3]

Her goal in London was to address big problems such as housing and public spaces. She said: "I wanted to address some of the big, big problems that needed to be addressed, particularly in London.The quality of housing and the quality of public space really suffered in the 1980s under Thatcher, and there has been, in the last ten years in London, a movement to start investing in the public realm and looking at things that haven't been looked at in a long time: new forms of housing, sustainable housing, urban design and infrastructure – all of the stuff that Britain's been pretty far behind on. So that was my big ambition."[4]

After working with Ron Arad, she moved on to start her own firm in London, where she initially worked on small projects. "These are the kinds of things that you do when you've got a new practice and you're waiting for the big one to walk in the door," she said. Eventually she received larger commissions.[3]

Brooks' architecture has been described as "a late flowering of the most elegant and sensuous modernism".[5] She is particularly known for designing intelligent and beautiful houses but has also moved into the cultural sector, for example designing the Performing Arts Centre at Folkestone.[5] She says: "The main point I try to make is that the idiosyncrasies or each project drive different solutions. I really like that people don't know what they are getting with me."[4]

In 1999 Brooks was placed third in the UK's "Young Architect of the Year" competition. In 2000 she was winner of the "European Hotel Design and Development Awards - Best Interior Design of a New Hotel / Best Guestroom Design".[1]

Alison Brooks is the only UK architect to have won all three of the UK's most prestigious awards for architecture:[6] the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize (for The Wrap House, in 2006),[7] the RIBA Manser Medal (in 2014 for the Lens House)[8] Thirdly, in 2008 Alison Brooks Architects were the joint winners of the RIBA Stirling Prize for their part in the design of Accordia, a high-density development of 378 dwellings.[9]

In March 2013 Brooks received the AJ Woman Architect of the Year Award. One of the judges, Paul Monaghan, said: "Her mixture of sculpture, architecture and detail is what has made her such a powerful force in British architecture."[10]

In 2016, she designed Smile, a temporary cantilevered wooden structure on the grounds of the Chelsea School of Art, demonstrating the structural feasibility of cross-laminated timber.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rising Stars Profile: Alison Brooks, BBC Radio 3, 2001. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Entries for Alison Brooks and Alison Brooks Architecture on the Union List of Artist Names
  3. 1 2 3 Lerner, Kevin (25 July 2001). "Alison Brooks: big ideas for Britain". Archived from the original on 17 March 2006.
  4. 1 2 Lerner, Kevin (2001). Alison Brooks: Big Ideas for Britain. Architectural Record. pp. 55–56.
  5. 1 2 Jonathan Glancey Pearl in the shell, The Guardian (London), 5 December 2005. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "Alison Brooks". www.mchmaster.com. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  7. ↑ "Stephen Lawrence Prize". www.architecture.com. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  8. ↑ "Lens House - Alison Brooks Architects". Alison Brooks Architects. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  9. ↑ RIBA Stirling Prize 2008: Accordia, RIBA website. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  10. ↑ Christine Murray (ed.), AJ Woman Architect of the Year: Alison Brooks, Architects' Journal, 28 March 2013, p. 14.
  11. ↑ Himelfarb, Ellen (29 July 2016). "The Smile by Alison Brooks Architects Gives CLT a Boost". Architect Magazine. American Institute of Architects. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
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