Cook's Camden: The Making of Modern Housing
We're delighted to present the new book Cook’s Camden: The Making of Modern Housing, by Mark Swenarton, now available from our website.
The book is particularly topical moment as the central protagonist in Cook’s Camden has this week been awarded the the most prestigious architectural award in the world, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2018. Neave Brown is famed the world over for the mould-breaking housing projects that he designed while working under Sydney Cook at Camden in the 1960s and 70s – Alexandra Road and Fleet (Dunboyne) Road.
Cook’s Camden, the result of ten years’ research by architecture professor Mark Swenarton, is the first full-scale study of Brown’s work.
The projects designed by Neave Brown and his Camden colleagues represented a new type of urban housing, based on a return to streets with front doors. In place of tower blocks, the Camden architects showed how the required densities could be achieved without building high, creating a new kind of urbanism that integrated with, rather than broke from, its cultural and physical context.
Here we select a few of the key photos of work by Neave Brown included in the book.
Image: Neave Brown/LBC, Alexandra Road, the pedestrian bridge crossing the vehicle court to block A.
Photo © Tim Crocker
Image: Neave Brown/LBC, Alexandra Road, junction of Rowley Way and Abbey Road.
Photo © Tim Crocker
Image: Neave Brown/LBC, Alexandra Road, front doors facing each other across Rowley Way.
Photo © Tim Crocker
Image: Neave Brown/LBC, Fleet Road, overview of communal garden, with car parking beneath.
Photo © Tim Crocker
Photo of the book showing Neave Brown/LBC, Alexandra Road, block B lower maisonette: lower level, looking past stairs to bedroom and courtyard.
BUY THE BOOK NOW
Cook's Camden: The Making of Modern Housing by Mark Swenarton (£45 HB) is available from our site here.
EVENTS
Mark Swenarton and Neave Brown will be in conversation at Hackney Empire in London, Friday 27 October 2017, an event hosted by the Architecture Foundation. Book your ticket for this special evening here.
Mark will also be signing copies of the book at the Daunt's bookshop in Hampstead, 9 November 2017.