News
TC 163 – Alison Brooks Architects
02.2024
Our first practice monograph is now available for purchase! We’re proud to be collaborating with leading architectural publisher, TC Cuadernos, on their first monograph of a woman-led practice.
“The work of Alison Brooks Architects fuses an endlessly inventive architectural imagination with profound sensitivity to the diverse cultural and natural histories that form each project’s provenance. This ethos underpins the extraordinary array of nuanced and joyful works illustrated in this book, collectively described by Alison Brooks as ‘experimental archetypes’. This 386-page monograph charts eighteen built works completed in the past 20 years, extensively documented with descriptive texts, photographs, drawings and emblematic construction details that illuminate each project’s tectonic and conceptual intent.
The private houses in this book define Brooks’ early career and continue to be a test bed for experimentation. They illuminate her ability to conjure deeply human architectures of plasticity and informality. Organic geometries and expressive roof forms loosen cartesian boundaries to offer indeterminate spaces: these simultaneously act as a canvas for daily life, workplaces, or private art collections.
As the practice’s work has grown in scale, their urban housing schemes have been motivated by Brooks’ foundational belief that the architect’s duty to the city, and society, is to provide beautiful, sustainable, and accessible housing for all as a framework for individual and community well-being. This book reveals residential projects characterised by spatial generosity and a uniquely sculptural approach to form and material.
Alison Brooks Architects’ more recent educational and cultural projects emphasise architecture as a celebration of time, space, and light. Here Brooks interweaves spatial narratives with structural and material invention, exhibiting ever more sophisticated architectural languages and environments to engender new forms of social exchange.”
Order your copy here.
Alison Brooks at The Interior Design Show Toronto 2024
01.2024
Join Alison Brooks next Thursday, January 18th, as she delivers the keynote speech for the Interior Design Show (IDS) Toronto 2024. In conversation with Deezen’s US Editor, Ben Dreith, Alison will discuss her inspirations, her career journey and the future of the studio.
Get your tickets here.
When: Jan. 18, 2024 – 12:00 to 1:00pm
Where: Cosentino Main Stage, Metro Toronto Convention Centre North Building, 255 Front St W, Toronto
Alison Brooks at Toronto International Architectural Roundtable
11.2023
Alison Brooks will be in Toronto this November for The Buildings Show Toronto International Architectural Roundtable, where she will discuss Design Solutions for the Housing Crisis with Alfonso Femia, Janna Levitt and Ouri Scott. Co-sponsored by the Ontario Association of Architects and moderated by architectural critic Adele Weder, she will outline the challenges presented by the housing crisis both internationally and in Canada. The conversation will explore strategies to tackle these challenges across design and policy.
At ABA, our dedication to inclusive city-building is grounded in the belief of housing as civic building. Working with private and public sector clients and local communities to deliver affordable, sustainable, and diverse neighbourhoods, we strive to foster equitable opportunities for both urban and rural societies. Get your tickets here.
When: Nov. 29, 2023 – 9:00 to 10:30am
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre South Building, 222 Bremner Blvd, Toronto
Alison Brooks appointed as Chair for the Design South East Expert Panel
11.2023
We are delighted that Alison Brooks has been appointed as Chair for the Design South East Expert Panel. After many years as a Design Review Panel member and Design Council Ambassador, Alison’s new role underscores her commitment to improving the design and quality of buildings and public spaces across the UK.
Design Council’s expert panels deliver constructive guidance that fosters dialogue and collaboration between Planning Authorities, Clients and Architects, to help ensure that design proposals respond positively to their context and maximise benefit to the communities that they serve; values exemplified by ABA projects such as Quarterhouse Performing Arts Centre, Exeter College’s Cohen Quad, Oxford, and our ‘palazzo’ apartment buildings at Knight’s Park, Eddington; frontispiece for this emerging, net-zero operational carbon neighbourhood.
Rubicon wins Best Design for Four Storeys or More at the Housebuilder Awards 2023
11.2023
We’re pleased to share that our Rubicon project at Eddington, North West Cambridge has won ‘Best Design for Four Storeys or More’ at the Housebuilder Awards 2023.
Congratulations to Hill Group and their construction team. ABA are proud to have delivered design, planning and construction documents for this project after our 2025 developer/architect competition-winning bid. Thanks to all our collaborators and individuals who made this project a success!
To learn more about the award-winning project click here.