IN 2019 RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) launched an annual Neave Brown award (NBA) for housing.

Brown was the celebrated architect, who worked in Camden’s architectural department led by the remarkable Sydney Cook, and is responsible for the iconic Alexandra estate.

The 2021 NBA winner is Peter Barber. Barber’s winning entry (one of two shortlisted, the other, 95 Peckham Road, won RIBA London Award 2021) is the McGrath Road estate.

Designed for Newham Borough Council, which the jury stated: “inventively combines a traditional European courtyard typology with a traditional London terrace, setting a new creative benchmark for the future of London’s affordable housing.”  

When the Star spoke to Barber, he intimated that McGrath Road was to be a practical exploration of his vision of the 100-mile city advanced concept that would ring London around its periphery and which, he believed, could provide two million homes in about 15 years.

The McGrath Road scheme comprises 26 new homes, all with either social rent, affordable rent or shared ownership tenures and the highly merited award should, given the appalling present state of housing development, seriously rekindle interest in Barber’s “ring-city” proposal.

The jury noted the “block” projected optimism on the outside, and neighbourly feel with a inner yard that feels unapologetically European and invites sociability of the resident community and safe play environment for children.

The courtyard configuration allows each house to have its own sense of identity. The entrances are set under parabolic arches, creating arcaded frontages to the street and the courtyard that help to tie the development together, setting the scene for a vibrant, active and enjoyable community.

Built using the yellowish London stock bricks, it emphasises the organic link to the area as well as giving a sense of lightness, warmth and cheer.

Inside, convention is challenged with an upturned design. The living room sits at the top floor to take advantage of the best views, the intermediate floors are given to bedrooms, while the dining room and kitchen are at the ground level giving it pavement coffee-shop ambience.

Each unit has also a generous terrace and a balcony as private outdoor space.

Solar panels are mounted on the roof in line with modern sustainability norms and will contribute to keeping energy bills down.

Barber told the Star: “These high-density, off-street-level housing, the back-to-back mews four-storey house typologies, find increasing favour with clients, who range from local councils to socially minded developers like Kuropatwa.”

The inner yards are meant to be shared and assist the mingling of tenants and developing integrated communities in line the practice’s adopted Walter Benjamin definition: “Buildings are used as a popular stage. They are all divided into innumerable, simultaneously animated theatres. Balcony, courtyard, window, gateway, staircase, roof are at the same time stages and boxes” ( One Way Street, 1924).

Asked what impact has this had on his original 100-mile city concept, Barber noted that the practice was getting regular design work around the periphery of London where designs were being woven into the green belt area, expanding and interpreting anew the original idea.Barber’s success is that of a modern, humanist housing architecture that is as socially inclusive as it is aesthetically edifying, in line with the ideals of Neave Brown.

MICHAL BONCZA