News
Richard Neutra’s Lovell Health House: Book Launch and Panel Discussion
10.2025
Yesterday we joined forces with the Twentieth Century Society, to celebrate the launch of a significant addition to scholarship on the origins of the Modern Movement in America – ‘Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925–35’.
Edited by Edward Dimendberg, it tells the story of the Lovell Health House in Los Angeles, designed and built by Richard Neutra from 1927 to 1929, from its inspiration through its construction to its impact.
It was a ‘demonstration house’: widely documented and written about in leading architectural journals when it was built. These publications elevated the house to the status of an icon in the history of modernism and an essential work of the international modern movement, from Berlin to Tokyo and Paris to Milan, at the high point of its influence and fame.
Held at the Alan Baxter Gallery, London, the event featured a conversation moderated by Ingrid Schröder with Nicholas Olsberg, Edward Dimendberg, William Mann and Alison Brooks. Together, they explored the making of the Lovell Health House and its lasting significance for contemporary architecture, pedagogy and criticism.
The Lovell Health House helped to launch the international career of one of the central figures of 20th-century architecture, pioneered the use of concrete and steel in the dwelling, radically advanced the ideals of hygienic, carefree and open-air living, and explored new relationships between space, structure, the natural world and physical and psychological well-being – all of which were touched upon in the debate in the room. The book includes new texts by Edward Dimendberg, Crosby Doe and Nicholas Olsberg, a chronology by Thomas Hines, historic texts by Willard D. Morgan and Richard Neutra, and specially commissioned colour photographs by Grant Mudford.
A huge thank you to our co-hosts for the event, Lund Humphries and the Twentieth Century Society.
↳ Copies of the book are available now at Lund Humphries website.
Jury Member for the 58th Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence
10.2025
At this year’s Canadian Architect magazine Awards of Excellence jury, Alison Brooks discussed a fantastic array of projects with co-jurors Kelly Buffey OAA FRAIC, Sonia Gagné and photographer Salina Kassam.
From cultural centres to cabins, across a territory of thousands of square miles, the jury reviewed an astonishing range of work – remarkable in scale, diversity and quality – emerging across Canada. Bravo to the designers and the commissioning clients!
Thank you to Elsa Lam and Canadian Architect for orchestrating a rigorous judging process and to Akb Architects for their generous hosting. Alison joined the 58th Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, continuing a tradition since 1967.
Constructing Realities Lecture Series at UCL East Marshgate
10.2025
Michael Mueller, Director at Alison Brooks Architects, presented ‘Making Architecture in Context’ as part of the Constructing Realities Lecture Series at UCL East Marshgate, kicking off the first studio for MEng Engineering and Architectural Design students.
Hosted by The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and supported by the student society SEAD, the Constructing Realities series invites speakers to explore the design and making of our built environment, examining how invention, creativity, collaboration, and technology are shaping the future of the spaces we live in.
Join Our Expanding Studio
10.2025
We are looking for Part 2 Architectural Assistants and Architects to join our London studio and work on exciting projects across the UK and internationally.
We are seeking creative, collaborative and motivated people who want to contribute to an ambitious and inventive design culture.
Find out more and apply via our Careers page or please email your CV, portfolio and a short letter (PDF, max 12MB) explaining why you would like to join us to: careers@alisonbrooksarchitects.com
Five Teams Shortlisted for Latest LSE Development
09.2025
The project to revitalise 61A Aldwych Crescent for teaching and research will help consolidate the university’s London campus.
Alison Brooks Architects are delighted to be collaborating with Feix&Merlin Architects in this competition for The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Five design teams are in the running for the LSE competition to overhaul an Edwardian office building in Holborn, central London. Located on the corner of Aldwych and Kingsway, the 110-year-old block once hosted the Air Ministry before becoming home to television stations (when it was known as Television House) and later ExxonMobil.
We are happy to be shortlisted alongside Allies and Morrison, STUDIOS Architecture with Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt Ltd, Ennead Architects with 10 Design, and 3XN/GXN with Adamson Associates Architects – good luck to all.
Read the write up on the Architects’ Journal here.
Cadence in Bloomberg CityLab — “A New London Landmark Bridging Victorian Rail & Ancient Rome”
08.2025
You can now read the humanist and innovative story of Cadence on Bloomberg CityLab.
“Across large parts of London, architects and developers face a common conundrum. On one hand, they need to create contemporary, state-of-the art buildings that maximize a site’s potential. On the other hand, they also need to be acutely sensitive to historic cityscapes… Cadence, a new apartment complex in London’s King’s Cross designed by Alison Brooks Architects, manages to tread the line between these two needs with elegance and invention,” writes Feargus O’Sullivan for Bloomberg CityLab.
The mixed-use residential building establishes the northern threshold of the Stirling Prize-shortlisted King’s Cross masterplan, recognisably defined by human-scaled arches, active street frontages and a slender tower that forms a welcoming beacon at the neighbourhood’s park edge.
“A large but by no means overbearing complex built on a former goods yard directly behind a Victorian railway terminus, Cadence harmonizes with the older architecture in its vicinity, without descending into pomposity or historicist cosplay,” O’Sullivan adds.
To achieve its ambitious performance and sustainability goals, Alison Brooks Architects delivered construction documents enabling off-site fabrication for 85% of the building’s components – dramatically reducing waste and construction time while achieving excellent thermal and acoustic performance – uniting digital precision with traditional bricklaying craft.
“Off-site fabrication is the future of construction, because I think it’s our only way to achieve anything close to zero waste,” says Alison Brooks. “Prefabrication addresses the emissions associated with material waste by manufacturing components in a controlled environment. With an extremely compact building site, there was no space for on-site storage – every element arrived by truck and was lifted directly into place.”