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Download Press Release (word document 24K) Camilla Brueton, Strip Sophie Chéry, Concrescere Sarah Girard, No Dogs Allowed Jana Haldrich and David Davies, Installation for
The Brunswick Centre McCormack & Gent, McCormack & Gent are
not talking Catherine Packard, There's no place like home Please credit all authors as indicated |
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About The Brunswick Project The Brunswick Centre, located between Kings Cross and Russell Square is one of London’s most recognisable and iconic buildings from the 1960’s. Conceived by the architect Patrick Hodgkinson, the centre provides low-rise high-density housing, shops, offices/studios, a cinema and car parking within an awesome concrete and glass megastructure. The two residential blocks sit above the public spaces and contain vast circulation spaces, endless corridors, staircases and dark corners. This uncompromising piece of architecture generates feelings of admiration or dislike from both visitors and residents. Today this Grade II listed building remains an important shopping complex for the local King’s Cross and Bloomsbury communities. The four hundred flats, council and private, house a culturally diverse population of residents. Despite its poor state of repair, a large number of empty shops, and impressions of a "concrete jungle" it is a popular and sociable place to live. In order to create a fresh dialogue between the architecture of The Brunswick Centre, the local community and the general public, a group of residents have teamed up with a local artist and curator. A unique art event and exhibition has been commissioned which would work with the specificity of this unusual building and begin to bring it back to life. |
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Patrick Hodgkinson began to develop the concept for the design of The Brunswick Centre with his study of the Loughborough Road Estate in Lambeth by the LCC, where Sir Leslie Martin was the chief architect. Hodgkinson and Martin then collaborated in 1957 on a scheme for St Pancras Borough Council. This unbuilt low-rise development established some of the principles that would be carried through to The Brunswick Centre; no social segregation, a search for low cost-high density building types, an open space for each unit and a synthesis of scale with the surroundings. The Foundling Project, as it was originally known - after the Foundling Hospital who owned the freehold to this part of Bloomsbury, began in 1959/60. The scheme by Hodgkinson and Martin, who was involved up until 1963, was for the redevelopment of the areas shown A, B and C on the map. There were three aims: first to ‘test’ low-rise, high-density building, secondly to relate housing to shops and thirdly to provide a nucleus to future development. The client was Marchmont Properties Ltd., with the building firm of Sir Robert McAlpine as one of the financers. McAlpine were, unsurprisingly, the consultant structural and services engineer, quantity surveyor and contractor. Their design was carried out from portacabins on the southeast corner of the site, while the 19th century buildings were being demolished down around them. The design went through many changes and developments. There follows a very condensed summary of events. |
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1960-63. Negotiations with the LCC for outline consent of a superblock with housing above shops and an underground car park. An initial sketch shows the housing stepping inwards along each side of the central spine to form an enclosed ‘street’. This quickly changed to terraces stepping away from the central public space. 1963-64. Design of the main site for shops and speculative luxury apartments with 16 different plans. 1964-65. Re-planning for lower rent speculative flats and nurses’ hostels at low level around the perimeter. 1965-66. Negotiations with Camden to acquire the housing and a reduction of flat types to studios, one bed and two bedroom flats and maisonettes. 1966-68. Final design and working drawings. 1968-72. Construction of a truncated building on Site A. The structure, designed by the McAlpine Design Group, is a reinforced concrete frame, with a surprising amount of structural brickwork. The external walls of the flats are rendered blockwork. This, and the exposed rc frame were originally to have been painted in a ‘Regency stucco’ colour. The omission of the paint came as further cost cuts were made to the finishes while the project was on site. |
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The flats are single aspect, facing outwards. The majority has one or two bedrooms, all on one level. The two bedroom flats gain from having a better hall space, a slightly larger bathroom (but still only space for a 5' bath!) and a longer balcony. The main living space has the glazed wall/ceiling at one end, with a door onto the balcony. At the opposite end is the kitchen, separated from the living space by a breakfast bar. Each bedroom has a door onto the balcony. Heating is provided by ducted hot air, with each flat having a fan that blows over hot water pipes. Until last year the hot water for this was provided by a boiler room in the hotel on the opposite side of Marchmont Street. Each flat has its own hot water tank, rather than a central supply of hot water. As with all sensible housing, sheds are provided, for a weekly rental of 25 pence. The flats are well laid out and full of light, although the west facing units become very hot in the summer. Movement joints are required along the two blocks to allow for thermal expansion and contraction. The detailing of these, and the drainage of the balconies, leaves much to be desired and leaks are a common problem. In its final form the building has 560 flats for 1644 people. There are 80 commercial units that include shops, a cinema (now divided into two) and small offices. Below it all is parking space for 925 cars on two levels and a delivery space that can accommodate Safeway’s articulated lorries. |
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The question of ownership and responsibility for maintenance and repairs has long be-devilled the building. The freehold has changed hands a number of times and is now owned by Allied London. Camden has a lease on the flats, and the 50 or so privately owned flats have a sub-lease off Camden. There is currently a planning application for the re-development of the shopping area and the long overdue repair and painting of the building’s exterior. The design is by Levitt Bernstein Associates (both David Levitt and David Bernstein were involved in the original design) and Patrick Hodgkinson. The main proposals are for a new supermarket across the north end of the public space, a semi-circular restaurant above the entrance onto Brunswick Square and the bringing forward of the shop fronts to the column line. The question of what to do with the large roof terraces at first floor has yet to be addressed. Reference: The Architectural Review, October 1972. |
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The Brunswick Project: An opportunity for artists to present work in a Site-Specific Art Event. The brief Sites available |
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The selection panel is made up of the following people. Click a name for a biography. Stuart Tappin |
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Isabelle Chaise is a French journalist and translator working as a correspondent for the French architectural and cultural press. A graduate from the Sorbonne in Paris her professional background has been mainly in magazine publishing. She has been living in the Brunswick Centre for three years and sees the arts as an important part of the rejuvenation of the building. She is currently studying Arts Management at The University of London. |
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Rory Hamilton is a practicing artist whose most recent work includes "Generic Sci Fi Quarry" a large scale outdoor video performance which was part of the nationwide artists project TV Swansong (www.swansong.tv). He is also course leader and researcher in Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art. Rory adrmired the Brunswick for many years while he worked at the nearby Bartlett School of Architecture. Two days before Millenium Eve he was lucky enough to move in. The Brunswick appears in his work "Generic Sci Fi Quarry". |
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Patrick Hodgkinson is the architect for The Brunswick Centre and has remained one of the key figures in British architecture since the 1950's. Qualifying from the Architectural Association School (1950-56), he spent a year working in the office of Alvar Aalto. Afterwards he worked for the structural engineer Felix Samuely, before joining the Cambridge office of Professor Sir Leslie Martin. He conceived The Brunswick Centre in the late 1950's and was solely resonsible for the the initiation, design development and part erection of the scheme. He has held American visiting professorships at Iowa State, Kentucky, Cornell, Columbia and Yale since 1966. In 1981 he became Director of Studies for the Batchelor of Architecture course at the University of Bath and in 1990 was awarded the (personal) Chair of Architecture and Urbanism there. |
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Catherine Packard is an artist with a background in Photography, Dance, Performance and Video; her current practice is mainly presented in the form of Video, Installation and Live Art. She is co-founder of 'eel' (east end live), an artist-led organisation, which provides opportunities for emerging and established artists working within the Live Art arena, to present work in a series of events taking place throughout the year. Catherine lives in Kings Cross with her children and is an active member of the local community. The Brunswick Centre has been her local shopping centre for the past 21 years; witness to some of the most significant, and some of the most trifling moments in her life. |
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Stuart Tappin has been living in the Brunswick Centre for three years. He is the Chair of the Tenants and Residents Association and is working on a number of proposals to improve the quality of the building for the residents and visitors. Raising awareness is important and this year he included the Centre and his flat on the Open House weekend. He is a conservation-based structural engineer and has worked on buildings as diverse as Hampton Court Palace, the V&A Museum and the Barbican Centre. He has lectured at universities in the UK and India and is writing a history of early 20th century buildings in India. With Isabelle Chaise he was co-organiser of Urban Tracks, a photographic exhibition in 1995 that explored ideas of subjectivity and objectivity in the city. |
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For enquiries, please email This project has been generously supported by Camden Council Artists in Residence Fund, Awards For All, Allied London, Kings Cross Development Trust and Levitt Bernstein Associates. |
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Website by Hyperkit |
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Nineteen artists proposals have been selected for "The Brunswick Project", these include installations, projections, performance and textworks. The artists represent a diversity of backgrounds and types of practice. the artworks reflect the varied responses to the building, its surroundings, history and the local community. Several of the works will engage the local people: one artist will work with residents recording stories about life in their extraordinary home, another will ask them to take the part of characters in the popular soap "Neighbours". While a third looks at the residents differing tastes in décor by photographing their wallpapers and projecting them onto the outside of the building. Performance plays a large part in "The Brunswick Project": the gentility of tea making is contrasted with one of the cell like "shed" spaces. Paper planes are flown over the shopping centre in an attempt to communicate between the two blocks. A poet dressed in a model of the building will recite on the terraces. The building itself will be altered by giant hangings draped over an area of the façade like a huge net curtain. The terraces will see Dalmatians with their heads in the sand (or rather concrete) and an artery of green turf sprouting from the paving and connecting the lonesome trees. |
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The works are varied and will appeal to all the senses (smell included), to all ages, to locals and visitors alike. Over the three days of the event they will bring the building to life and celebrate lives and work of its residents, businesses, admirers and detracters. The Artists Click on a name for a biography and contact details. Bill Aitchison |
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Show: |
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Q. What sounds could be used? |
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Q. What money is available to artists? |
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Q. When will the event take place? |
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Q. Will outdoor performance-based works be possible? |
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Q. Can the window cleaning gantries be used? |
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Q. What happens to materials after the event? |
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Q. Can the corridors be used? |
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Q. When will spaces be available? |
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Q. Are there location plans for the new enclosed spaces? |
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Q. Can I paint on the concrete? |
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Q. Can I involve residents in my work? |
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Q. Is this project community art? |
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