2018 Royal Gold Medal

As a recognition of his lifetime’s work, iconic English architect Neave Brown will receive RIBA’s 2018 Royal Gold Medal, the UK’s highest honour for architecture.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that Neave Brown will receive the 2018 Royal Gold Medal, the UK’s highest honour for architecture. Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture”. Neave Brown, the revered Modernist architect, is perhaps best known for his visionary 1970s Alexandra Road estate near Swiss Cottage built by Camden Council.

<b>Top:</b> Alexandra Road Estate, Camden, London. The pedestrian street between blocks A and B looking north-east. <b>Above:</b> Neave Brown, Alexandra Road Estate under construction, Camden, London
Neave Brown, Alexandra Road Estate, Camden, London. The community centre from the gardens between blocks B and C
Neave Brown, Alexandra Road Estate, Camden, London. The north-east end with block B on the left and block A on the right
Neave Brown, Dunboyne Estate, Fleet Road, Camden, London. South elevation of east block
Neave Brown, Dunboyne Estate, Fleet Road, Camden, London. West elevation of the the east block

  With its striking stepped concrete terraces and spacious flats, not only does it provide 500 homes but in Neave’s own words, it’s “a piece of city”, containing shops, workshops, a community centre, special needs school, children’s centre, a care home for young people with learning difficulties and a 16,000 sqm public park. Brown believes every home should have its own front door opening directly on to a network of routes and streets that make up a city, as well as its own private external space, open to the sky in the form of a roof garden or terrace. Each of these qualities was incorporated by Brown at Alexandra Road.

Neave Brown. Photo Garath Gardner