Neave Brown (22 May 19299 January 2018) was an American-born British architect and artist. He specialized in

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

housing. Brown is the only architect to have had all his UK work

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

:Elizabeth Hopkirk
Neave Brown becomes first architect to have all his UK work listed
– 3 October 2014 row houses in Winscombe Street, the

Dunboyne Road Estate The Dunboyne Road Estate previously known as the Fleet Road Estate is a Grade II-listed modernist estate, designed in Gospel Oak, London by Neave Brown in the late 1960s.Denford, Steven (2005), ''Streets of Gospel Oak and West Kentish Town'', C ...

and

Alexandra Road Estate The Alexandra Road estate (officially the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate, but often referred to as Rowley Way, the name of its main thoroughfare) is a housing estate in the London Borough of Camden, North West London, England. It was designed i ...

, all located in Camden. In October 2017, he won the

Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

for his Alexandra Road Estate, which is now considered a landmark of British social housing, and is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

Life

Brown was born on 22 May 1929 in

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the fo ...

. His mother was American and his father was British. He went to Bronxville High School, New York, USA from 1935 to 45 and attended Marlborough College 1945–1948 in the UK. During his military service in Great Britain he decided to study architecture and enrolled at the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

in London in 1950.Biography at The Modern House
/ref> After graduating in 1956 and working in East Africa he gained valuable work experience in the firm Lyons Israel Ellis. Subsequently, he became an architect at the London Borough of Camden under Sydney Cook. Brown left the London Borough of Camden architecture department as continuous conflicts around the construction of the

in Camden prevailed. After a public enquiry linked to overshooting costs and exceeding deadlines tried, unsuccessfully, to blame the architect his reputation was nonetheless severely damaged. Brown and his wife lived at

Winscombe Street Winscombe Street refers to a terrace of five houses in Camden, London, England, designed by the architect Neave Brown for himself and a collective of four other families. It is Grade II listed and was the precursor for the house and maisonette de ...

, in the building Brown designed himself. They then moved to

, where as of 2015 they had lived for about six years. At the age of 73, Brown closed down his practice and studied

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

at the City and Guilds of London School of Art (BA). Brown was diagnosed with epithelioid

mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...

in June, 2017. He diedMark Swenarton,
Neave Brown obituary
.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

, 12 January 2018. Accessed 13 January 2018 peacefully at home surrounded by family on 9 January 2018 at the age of 88. He is buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

National Life Stories National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the ‘National Life Story Collection’) based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. S ...

conducted an oral history interview (C467/113) with Neave Brown in 2013–14 for its Architects Lives' collection held by the British Library.National Life Stories, 'Brown, Neave (1 of 19) National Life Stories Collection: Architects' Lives', The British Library Board, 2014
Retrieved 10 April 2018 Brown, Neave 2018

Work

He specialized in modernist housing and his works include: * Five modern terraced houses in

, Highgate Newtown, London (1965) *

(Fleet Road), Camden, London (1977) *

, Camden, London (1978)

Oliver Wainwright Oliver Wainwright (born July 1984) is a British architecture and design critic. He has written for the British newspapers '' The Guardian'' and '' The Times'' and is the Features Editor for the industry magazine ''Building Design''. He trained ...

,
'I'm dumbfounded!' … Neave Brown on bagging an award for the building that killed his career
.

, 6 October 2017. Accessed 6 October 2017 * The Zwolestraat Development in

Scheveningen Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is ...

, The Hague, with David Porter (1994): 500 apartments, hotel, school hostel, landscaping including the largest underground car park (2,500 cars) in the Netherlands. * Smalle Haven,

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

''attitudes''" towards housing at the time, emancipating himself from the Modern Movement: Instead of understanding the past as a mere ground for the figure of prominent modern towers the texture of the old is accepted as the context in which new is built, "''exist'' ng''side by side''". He praises the nine-teenth century streets as providing "''immediacy of relationship between house and neighbourhood''", and "''the traditional quality of background stuff, anonymous, cellular, repetitive''". Similarly the modern architect should provide concepts that "''relate each house to its neighbour and to its open space, determine the desirable relationships between housing and the attendant functions''" Furthermore, the modernist "''isolation of the slab''" has to be overcome again it is "''the architect's job to structure the environment''". Furthermore, Brown dismisses the idea of architecture as expenddability and claims: "''What we do now with both new and old is here to stay''".

Recognition

*Brown is the only architect to have had all his UK work

of the

in 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Neave 1929 births 2018 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Architects from New York (state) Alumni of the Architectural Association School of Architecture People from Utica, New York American emigrants to England Modernist architects Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal