Photo Mark Hadden
Multi-award winning UK-based architect Alison Brooks will be delivering a keynote lecture at Vancouver Design Week on May 9 called “IDEALS THEN IDEAS: New Urban Housing as Civic Architecture."
Brooks will discuss her practice philosophy and approach to architecture including the ideal of 'civicness' relating to her current and recently completed projects in housing and higher education.
She's working on a residential housing project for Vancouver real estate developer Rize Alliance. The project is in its early stages and Brooks tells V.I.A. they won't have more details available until the fall at the earliest. Her team is hoping to include co-working and multi-use spaces in residential development because "the way we live is changing but the development models are still at least 60 years old."
Her Exeter College Cohen Quadrangle for the University of Oxford will be unveiled this fall, which marks the first Oxford College to be designed by a female architect.
Brooks grew up in Welland and Guelph, Ontario and says her mother inspired her to study architecture.
Her mother loved the rural beauty of old barns, beautiful houses and would often talk about how much she loved the University College building, which she frequented while studying at the University of Toronto.
Brooks graduated from a BES and BArch from the University of Waterloo and moved to London in 1988. She is the only British architect to have won all three of the UK's most prestigious awards for architecture: the RIBA Stirling Prize, Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize.
Ely Court in London Photo Paul Riddle
She is the principal and creative director of Alison Brooks Architects (ABA), which is currently designing a Maggie's Centre in Somerset. Past designers of Maggie's Centres include Frank Gehry, the late Zaha Hadid, OMA, Rogers Stirk Harbour and Steven Holl. Brooks will also be exhibiting a major installation at La Biennale di Venezia’s 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy from May until November 2018.
When asked about Vancouver's housing issues; Brooks says most major cities are experiencing a housing crisis and politicians need to make rules for 30 per cent market housing in developments and have the political will to enforce those rules.
Take London for example.
In 2016, London Mayor Sadiq Khan outlined plans to quadruple the amount of affordable housing by having new developments include 50 per cent of homes on some new housing developments to be affordable, which is defined as a third of average incomes.
That same year it was revealed that two-thirds of London's tallest residential skyscraper was sold to foreign-buyers and does not include any affordable housing. Not one London borough that set targets for affordable housing met those targets in the past six years, reports The Guardian.
Brooks says Vancouver also presents more opportunities for innovative design because it does not have the extensive history and heritage that developments in London must respect.
ABA recently released the book Ideals then Ideas, which explains the four ideals behind her work in architecture: Authenticity, Generosity, Civicness and Beauty.
Her talk will focus on how these ideals can be embedded in urban development and will be held at UBC Robson Square on Wednesday May 9 at 7 p.m.
Photo The Smile – Paul Riddle
