Alison Brooks, (born 29 December 1962) is a Canadian-British

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. She is the founder and creative director of Alison Brooks Architects, based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Her awards include the

RIBA Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...

, Manser Medal, Stephen Lawrence Prize, and RIBA House of the Year. Her designs include the Exeter College Cohen Quad at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, ''Smile'' at the

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a Colleges of the University of the Arts London, constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further education, further and higher educ ...

Accordia Accordia is a housing development in Cambridge, England. The site includes 378 dwellings by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects, Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects and has been constructed in three phases. The first phase of the ...

Brass Building and Sky Villas, and Windward House. In 2018 Brooks was invited to contribute to the Venice Architecture Biennale. Alison Brooks Architects won

Dezeen ''Dezeen'' is an online architecture, interiors and design magazine based in London, with offices in Hoxton, as well as New York City and Shanghai. History ''Dezeen'' was launched in London by Marcus Fairs at the end of November 2006. Its New ...

Architect of the Year 2020.

Biography and early career

Brooks was born and lived her early years in

Welland Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750. The city is in the centre of Niagara and located within a half-hour driving distance to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on ...

, Canada, but moved city in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

where she attended John F Ross high school. She finished her studies in architecture with a BES and BArch at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

in 1988. Brooks moved to the UK and worked with designer Ron Arad, becoming a partner at Ron Arad Associates in 1991. With Arad, Brooks co-designed the Foyer of the

Tel Aviv Opera The Israeli Opera, formerly known as the New Israeli Opera, is the principal opera company of Israel. It was founded in 1985 after lack of Israeli government funding led to the demise of the Israel National Opera. Since 1994 the Tel Aviv Perform ...

. Other projects included the restaurants

Belgo Belgo was a chain of London restaurants specializing in simple Belgian cooking and Belgian beer. There were five Belgo restaurants: Belgo Centraal ( Covent Garden), Belgo Holborn, Belgo Kings Cross, Belgo Nottingham and Belgo Bromley; followin ...

Noord and Belgo Centraal. Alison Brooks founded her practice Alison Brooks Architects in 1996, receiving a breakout commission a year later to design a hotel interior on the German island of Helgoland.

Private residences and housing

Notable private residences completed in the 2000s include VXO House, Wrap House and Salt House. Brooks' architecture of this period was described by

Jonathan Glancey Jonathan Glancey, is an architectural critic and writer who was the architecture and design editor at ''The Guardian'', a position he held from 1997 to February 2012. He previously held the same post at ''The Independent''. He also has been in ...

as "a late flowering of the most elegant and sensuous modernism".Glancey, Jonatha
''Pearl in the shell''
''The Guardian'' (London), December 5, 2005. Retrieved February 4, 2012. Alison Brooks Architects’ Sky Villas and Brass Building in the 2008 Stirling Prize-winning

, Cambridge masterplan paved the way for work in housing. Notable projects include the

Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...

-shortlisted Newhall Be Albert Crescent in Bath, and the 2018

Mies Van Der Rohe Award The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award is a prize given biennially by the European Union and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona,RIBA House of the year and the AJ Manser Medal in 2021.

Simon Allford Simon Allford (born July 1961, in Sheffield, UK) is a British architect, and is the co-founder and director of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM). He is a past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and serves as a membe ...

, president 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 suppl ...

, stated, "This is an extraordinary labour of love in architectural form. Every detail has been meticulously considered and exquisitely finished, resulting in a truly remarkable home that enhances its unique setting."

Cultural and higher education buildings

Quarterhouse in

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

, Brooks’ first building for the performing arts, was completed in 2009. The building's notable fluted mesh cladding was inspired by the maritime iconography of Fokestone, the translucency of local scallop shells, and the stage curtains that the building would house.

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

’s 6000 square metre Cohen Quadrangle also featured an innovative cladding and opened its doors to students in 2017, winning multiple awards for education building design. Rowan Moore,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

’s architecture critic, described the new Quad as, ‘A tour de force that puts people first.’ Design for the new entrance building and porters lodge of

Homerton College, Cambridge Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired in Homerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering of Protestant dissenters with origins in the seventeenth century. In 1894, the col ...

is in its final stages. Alison Brooks Architects was shortlisted, from close to 200 international expressions of interest, to redevelop the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

’ 43 Lincolns Inn Fields into the new Firoz Lalji Global Hub.

Exhibitions, installations and furniture

‘The Smile’ was a Project for the 2016

London Design Festival London Design Festival is a citywide cultural event that takes place over nine days every September across London. It was founded by John Sorrell and Ben Evans in 2003 and will stage its 23rd edition from 13 to 21 September 2025. In an article ...

; a public pavilion in the Chelsea College of Art (UAL) Parade ground that showcased the structural and spatial potential of cross–laminated hardwood using American tulipwood. ARUP Engineer Andrew Lawrence described The Smile as, ‘The most complex CLT structure that has ever been built.’ For Brooks, it was the opportunity the stretch the new ‘wonder material’ to the limit whilst demonstrating that the 21st century is an era not of concrete, but of timber. Alison Brooks Architects has contributed to the International Architecture Exhibition of

La Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Architecture Biennale (), which are held in alternating ye ...

four times. 'ReCasting', the practice's notable installation at the 2018 Biennale simulated the critical freespaces of work in housing as four inhabitable 'totems': Threshold, Inhabited Edge, Passage and Roofspace. 'Home Ground' was Alison Brooks Architects' contribution to the Biennale Architettura 2021 in Venice. Situated in the Arsenale, the installation explored how housing defines the way we live together in cities; as households, and by sharing collective ground. The practice's work also featured in the central Biennale Pavilion's 'Future Assembly'. In 2014 Brooks joined forces with furniture designer Felix de Pass to create a stool for the kitchen as part of a collaborative series for the London Design Festival.

Housing as a social project

Alison Brooks Architects have worked to advocate towards housing through community buildings by designing

mixed-income housing The definition of mixed-income housing is broad and encompasses many types of dwellings and neighborhoods. Following Brophy and Smith, the following will discuss “non-organic” examples of mixed-income housing, meaning “a deliberate effort to ...

projects. In the London borough of Brent, the Ely Court (completed in 2015) stands as a notable example. The rundown building was replaced with three mid-rise buildings filled with 43 residential rooms. Her design allows for increased social engagement, particularly by providing spaces open to the public. Other high density, low rise projects with affordable housing units include Newhall Be (Harlow) and Unity Place (London). Brooks advocates for "delivering along with new buildings a sense of civic pride and social rejuvenation," helping to aid and promote inclusiveness and social diversity. "Housing is the social project of architecture, it frames everyday life; it forms people's world view," says Brooks.

Awards and recognition

Brooks is the only architect of the UK to have won all three of the RIBA awards: the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize (for The Wrap House, in 2006), the RIBA Manser Medal (in 2014 for the Lens House), and the

for their part in the design of

, a high-density development of 378 residential rooms.RIBA Stirling Prize 2008: Accordia
, RIBA website. Retrieved February 4, 2012. In 2012, Alison Brooks was named Architect of the Year by Building Design Magazine. In March 2013, Brooks received the ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is a professional architecture magazine, published monthly in London by Metropolis International. Each issue includes in-depth features on relevant current affairs, alongside profiles of recently completed buildings. Ten t ...

''s Woman Architect of the Year Award. One of the judges, Paul Monaghan, said: "Her mixture of sculpture, architecture and detail is what has made her such a powerful force in British architecture." In 2020, Alison Brooks Architects was named Dezeen Architect of the Year, with the judges commenting, "A groundbreaking practice with great ethos – particularly the way that they question both norms and the profession itself."

Published works

Brooks revealed some of her processes, techniques, and themes in her published work ''Synthesis: Culture and Context'' in 2014. 21 years after the founding of Alison Brooks Architects, Brooks published ''Ideals then Ideas''. In 2018, the ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

'' published an article co-authored by Brooks, "The Surprising Power of Questions: It Goes Far Beyond Exchanging Information."

References

External links

Alison Brooks Architects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Alison Living people 1962 births Stirling Prize laureates Canadian women architects 20th-century Canadian architects 21st-century Canadian architects 20th-century Canadian women Royal Designers for Industry Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts