Part of a City: The Work of Neave Brown Architect

To celebrate the publication of a new book by Canalside Press about the work of architect and AA Alumnus Neave Brown, this symposium will discuss his legacy in architectural education and practice. The book brings together his writing and design projects, including his celebrated large-scale urban housing work for Camden Council, and the later projects undertaken in private practice with David Porter. Part of a City is a portrait of a period of optimism in modern architectural culture; it reveals the profound intellectual and artistic ideas that inspired this communal social effort and is also a portrait of a gifted and unusually articulate architect - someone who continues to inspire a new generation of architecture students today. ​

The book is the third book in the Modern Architecture in Reflection series. It explores the ethos and ideas of the Anglo-American architect Neave Brown (1929-2018), winner of the RIBA Gold Medal 2017. Produced in collaboration with Brown's partner in practice David Porter, Part of a City gets its title from his Gold Medal acceptance speech, when Brown observed: "We weren't making housing, we were making part of a city."

Schedule:
14:00 Introduction to the symposium - Manijeh Verghese
14:05 Introduction to the book - Patrick Lynch
14:45 Photographing Neave Brown's projects – Sue Barr
15:00 Working with Neave Brown – David Porter
15:30 The State of Housing – Jonathan Sergison
16:00 Break (tea and coffee)
16:30 Discussion chaired by Sofia Singler with Paul Karakusevic, Simon Henley, Patrick Lynch, Claudia Lynch, Sue Barr, David Porter and Jonathan Sergison
18:30 Book Launch
20:00 End

Speakers include:

Sue Barr is Head of Photography at the Architectural Association and has a PhD from the Royal College of Art. She works and exhibits internationally and is represented by Hartmann Projects (Stuttgart)

Simon Henley was born in England and studied architecture at The University of Liverpool. He is the founding partner of Henley Hale Brown Architects who are the recipients on numerous awards, most recently The Neave Brown Award 2022. He is the author of many books including Redefining Brutalism (2017) and The Architecture of Parking (2007), and teaches at Kingston University.

Paul Karakusevic was born in England and studied architecture at the RCA, where he was taught by Neave Brown. He is the founding partner of Karakusevic Carson Architects, whose housing projects have received numerous awards and bern widely published.

Claudia Lynch was born in the DDR and studied maths and physics at Humboldt University followed by Architecture at TU Dresden and then at Liverpool and London Met. She is a director of Lynch Architects. Their work has been widely published and Lynch Architects are the recipients of numerous awards. They exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2008 and 2012. Claudia has taught at London Met, and is an architect, editor and translator.

Patrick Lynch was born in England and is the founding director of Lynch Architects, and the publishing editor of Canalside Press. He studied architecture at The University of Liverpool and holds an M-Phil in The History and Philosophy of Architecture from Cambridge. He completed his PhD at London Met where he was supervised by Peter Carl and Joseph Rykwert. He has taught at the AA, Cambridge, London Met and Kingston, and currently teaches at The Bartlett and is an honorary professor at Liverpool. He is the author of numerous books including Civic Ground (2017) and Mimesis (2015). Canalside Press publications include On Intricacy: The Work of John Meunier Architect (2020), Change is the Reality: The Work of Robin Walker Architect (2021), as well as the new book about Neave Brown, as well as the biannual Journal of Civic Architecture (JoCA).

David Porter is an English born architect and teacher. He worked for Neave Brown at the London Borough of Camden and later was a partner in Neave Brown David Porter Architects, with associate offices in the Hague and Bergamo, Italy. He is emeritus professor of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, having been Head of School from 2000-2011, is Past-President of the Architectural Association and was professor of architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing from 2012-19. He has held visiting professorships at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the Arkitekskolen i Aarhus, Denmark and, currently, at the University of Westminster. He is chair of the trustees of Jacksons Lane, North London’s Performance Space and the UK’s leading venue for the circus arts.

Jonathan Sergison was born in England and studied at the AA. He is a founding partner of Sergison Bates Architects and a professor at Mendrisio. Sergison Bates have won numerous awards and their work has been widely published. He exhibited at Venice in 2012 and is active as an architect in London and Switzerland, where he now lives.

Sofia Singler was born in Finland and studied architecture at Cambridge and Yale. She returned to Cambridge to complete a PhD on the churches of Alvar Aalto and is now a fellow of Homerton College Cambridge. She teaches History and Theory and design studio in the department of architecture there, and her book on Aalto's Church of the Three Crosses will be published in 2023.

Image: Dunboyne Road, Sue Barr