Monthly Archives: May 2025
Clerkenwell Design Week 2025
21.05.2025, London, UK
Michael Mueller, our Director, delivered a presentation at the EH Smith Design Centre in London for CDW 2025.
Michael Mueller, our Director, delivered a presentation at the EH Smith Design Centre in London for CDW 2025.
His presentation, ‘Place and Materials’, explored the practice’s ethos, highlighting two of our recent projects – Rubicon in Eddington, northwest Cambridge, and Cadence in King’s Cross – as case studies demonstrating the studio’s collaboration with EH Smith and our shared commitment to beautiful and enduring materials.
The Rubicon project features a distinctive hand-glazed brick produced by Klinker Covadonga, while Cadence – a mixed-use residential development that defines the northern edge of the Stirling Prize-shortlisted King’s Cross masterplan – is characterised by its richly detailed orange brick, evocative of the materiality of the nearby St Pancras landmark.
Hosted in partnership with EH Smith, the event was held as part of London’s leading design festival, Clerkenwell Design Week, with the support of Architecture Today.
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Alison Brooks Architects Participates in South Korean Exhibition
20.05.2025, Seoul, South Korea
Alison Brooks Architects was invited by the Korean Institute of Female Architects (KIFA) to participate in the International Exchange Exhibition for Women Architects 2025 held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
Alison Brooks Architects was invited by the Korean Institute of Female Architects (KIFA) to participate in the International Exchange Exhibition for Women Architects 2025 held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
The event titled, “Arch of Inclusion, Architecture Bridging Worlds” (포용의 아치, 세상을 잇는 건축), celebrated architecture’s enlightened role in promoting diversity, equal opportunity and sustainability – bringing together women architects from across the globe for a six-day event encouraging deeper reflection.
As the inaugural presentation of our work in South Korea, we were honoured to stand alongside peers such as 2020 Pritzker Prize laureates Yvonne Farrell & Shelley McNamara (Grafton Architects), 2025 RIBA Royal Gold Medallist Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA) and Astrid Feiber (UNStudio).
First Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Yong Ho-Seong, aptly stated, “Architecture is not simply the composition of physical space, but a cultural art that designs people’s lives.’’
This was a meaningful and grounding experience – also the first international women’s architecture exhibition in South Korea in 15 years – which was made possible by KIFA and generously supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Links to articles: Naver and eKoreaNews
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UKREiiF 2025
20.05.2025, Leeds, UK
We are pleased to share highlights from an engaging and productive few days at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds last week. The event brought together leaders from across the built environment sector to discuss key issues shaping the future of development and infrastructure in the UK.
Highlights include a thought-provoking panel session hosted by The Earls Court Development Company, which explored strategies for sustainable growth and highlighted innovative approaches to long-term urban regeneration in the west London district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
We are pleased to share highlights from an engaging and productive few days at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds last week. The event brought together leaders from across the built environment sector to discuss key issues shaping the future of development and infrastructure in the UK.
Highlights include a thought-provoking panel session hosted by The Earls Court Development Company, which explored strategies for sustainable growth and highlighted innovative approaches to long-term urban regeneration in the west London district within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
British Land also delivered a compelling update on the evolving vision for Canada Water in southeast London, showcasing progress and ambition for one of the capital’s most significant regeneration projects which was started in the 1980s.
A key session featuring the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board offered an inspiring dialogue on the future of the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor. Chaired by Jane Hutchins, Director of Cambridge Science Park, the discussion emphasized a critical message: that the combination of funding, talent, and infrastructure forms the foundation of a robust development ecosystem – one that positions the UK as a global innovation leader and ensures nationwide regional benefits.
Another engaging feature was the high-energy speed pitch session with council leaders from across West London. Each leader passionately presented their borough’s unique strengths – from advanced manufacturing and research capacity to vital residential and transport infrastructure.
Beyond the sessions, the week provided valuable opportunities to reconnect with long-standing partners, forge new relationships, and share a collective sense of optimism with peers from across the UK industry.
A special thank-you to Civic Engineers for hosting a generous, and delicious, paella-themed closing party, a fitting end to a memorable week.
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Design Studio Master in Collective Housing Programme ETSAM, ETH Zürich
5.05.2025, Madrid, Spain
Alison Brooks led an intensive postgraduate design studio in Madrid as part of the renowned Master in Collective Housing (MCH) programme at Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) and ETH Zürich, alongside Architect and Teaching Assistant, Carlos Chauca Galicia.
Alison Brooks led an intensive postgraduate design studio in Madrid as part of the renowned Master in Collective Housing (MCH) programme at Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) and ETH Zürich, alongside Architect and Teaching Assistant, Carlos Chauca Galicia.
Alison’s studio, entitled Inhabited Boundaries, explored collective housing through the lens of consciousness, identity and architectural edges. Set in Madrid’s historic Barrio de La Latina, students worked on ‘Plaza Fiesta’, a public space bridging two streets at C. del Almendro and C. de la Cava Baja.
More than any other typology, urban housing impacts our collective understanding of place. It is the frame for streets, squares and passages in which civic life takes place – a three-dimensional boundary between the public realm and the space of private dwelling.
How does nature of the urban ‘street-wall’, the boundary, the façade and its structure express these new conditions? Can a wall be re-imagined as a place of invitation, of liminal being, of environmental absorption or social expression?
‘’Urban housing impacts individual and collective consciousness at multiple scales. Each dwelling offers an intimate stage for individual experience: of home, of shelter, of daily domestic rituals and as a place for social exchange. Volume, light, material and acoustic properties of the dwelling are experienced sensorially. Moments in everyday life engrain themselves in human conscious or subconscious to forge our sense of place and a sense of self,’’ Alison Brooks explained.
This year’s MCH workshops feature an exceptional faculty including:
Hrvoje Njiric (Zagreb)
Elli Mosayebi (Zurich)
Momoyo Kajima (Tokyo)
Jan De Vylder (Brussels)
Juan Herreros (Madrid)
Anne Lacaton (Paris)
Huge congratulations to Alison’s brilliant international cohort for their energetic and imaginative contributions.
MCH Students
Alejandro Gonzalez (Mexico), Bea Candano (Phillipines), Vipasha Chauhan (India), Anna Fatourou-Sipsi (Greece), Juan Begino (Argentina), Martina Carassale (Argentina), Kihyun Ahn (South Korea), Claudia Izquierdo (Chile), Myrto Peppa (Greece), Guillermo Hernández (Mexico), Soham Jamdar (India), Daniela Maestre (Colombia), Jatin Nimmala (India), Abel Chamberlin (USA), Luis Molina (Chile), Luis Gutierrez (Mexico), Nima Kordjanbaklou (Iran), Nada Azzez (Tunisia), Mariana Cantú (Mexico), Stergios Kaloudis (Greece), Ricardo Valladares (Mexico).
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