We were working then, not to do social housing, but to do housing. Not to do a site, but to work on the idea of a piece of city, to revitalise and work with the society that was there.
- Neave Brown

Brutalist architecture is divisive – its style is appreciated by many and disliked by many. Brutalist high-rise social housing projects were designed with progressive qualities in mind, but fell short of this goal, being known for fostering crime and for their poor design, construction and maintenance. Low-rise explores brutalism, the relationship between housing and its environment, and how this relationship was one of the keys to success in the low-rise estate when compared to the high-rise tower block. Captured on infrared film, the photographic technique highlights the relationship between housing and its environment by rendering nature in a luminous white.

Installation

Alexandra Road Estate
Whittington Estate
Barbican Estate

Low-rise Book

Project Statment

We were working then, not to do social housing, but to do housing. Not to do a site, but to work on the idea of a piece of city, to revitalise and work with the society that was there.
- Neave Brown

Installation

Alexandra Road Estate
Whittington Estate
Barbican Estate

Low-rise Book

Installation

[Left]
Untitled (from Low-rise)
Tiled and layered laserjet prints, 120gsm
2.1m x 1.1m

[Center]
Low-rise: A study of brutalist architecture in infrared
Photobook, 122 pages

[Right]
Untitled (from Low-rise)
Tiled and layered laserjet prints, 120gsm
0.8m x 1.2m

Alexandra Road Estate

The ‘D-Grid’

Communal heating chimneys

[left] Block B and [right] Block A

Block B

Block A

Block B,
west end

Block A,
[from] west end, backing onto the West Coast Main Line

Block A,
west end

Whittington Estate

Sandstone Place,
[from] Dartmouth Park Hill

Lulot Gardens

Stoneleigh Terrace

Lulot Gardens

Stoneleigh Terrace,
[from] Raydon Street

Sandstone Place

Sandstone Place,
Communal heating chimneys

Sandstone Place

Stoneleigh Terrace

Stoneleigh Terrace,
[from] Raydon Street

Lulot Gardens

Retcar Place

Barbican Estate

The Barbican Centre,
Phase V, completed 1982

Gilbert House,
Phase III, completed August 1969
[left] The Barbican Centre,
Phase V, completed 1982

Defoe House,
Phase II, completed December 1973

Lake Fountain

Willoughby House,
Phase III, completed April 1971
[In front of Willoughby House] Brandon Mews,
Phase III, completed November 1969
[right] Andrewes House,
Phase III, completed November 1969
[left] Guildhall School of Music and Drama,
Phase V, completed 1977

The Waterfall

Frobisher Crescent,
Phase V, completed 1982

Ben Jonson House,
Phase IV, completed March 1973

Bunyan Court,
Phase IV, completed December 1972

[under] Seddon House,
Phase II, completed May 1974

[left] Defoe House,
Phase II, completed December 1973
[right] Lauderdale Tower,
Phase II, completed October 1974

Mountjoy House,
Phase II, completed April 1971

Fore Street vehicle entrance

Speed House,
Phase III, completed July 1969