msa | Manchester School of Architecture | Staff

Staff / Richard Brook

Senior Lecturer

0161 247 1131

r.brook@mmu.ac.uk

• Registered Architect
• Advisor to the Manchester Modernist Society
• Member of peer review panel for Arts and
Humanities Research Council
• Member C20 Society
• Member British Society of Architectural Historians

Research interests:
Post-WWII British Modern Architecture. Mapping. Functionalism. Utilitarianism. Brutalism. Industrial Architecture. Planning. Policy. Urbanism. Urban Art. Land Art.

Richard is primarily interested in the policies of planning and regulation and the impact that this has on urban form, space and materiality. This interest informs two distinct areas of research; historical and contemporary.

The historical research with which Richard is engaged concerns the late twentieth century and is focused on regional development in relation to national and local policy. He has recently completed a project supported by the RIBA Research Trust, Manchester Modern. His thesis rests with the RIBA Library and is pending wider publication.

Of particular interest within the realm of contemporary regulations are issues of territory, boundary and the demarcation and ownership of space. The tension between virtual (data) space and real (physical) space is paramount to these studies. Mapping and visualisation techniques are used to provide representations of urban space which utilise the exposition of latent political and numerical conditions as both reactive and predictive models.

Richard is head of BA3 and shares a B[Arch] unit with Dr. Nick Dunn, concerned with urban mapping and representation. [Re_Map]

Richard is a member of 'team-bau', an architectural think-tank and research unit: www.team-bau.com

Richard is interested in the architecture of modernity, the machine age and functionalism. This is reflected in his engagement with digital media, he has worked with other artists exhibiting experimental industrial and electronic audio-visual material across the UK and Europe. He curates an electronic media label 'northmancbeds', and maintains the website 'manctransit', a depository for raw images related to these works.

Projects

bar_cycle

Competition entry with Dr. Nick Dunn, Ming Chung and Nick Tyson. bar_cycle is a prototype unit that presents a set of creative solutions within the city which provide a new layer of sustainable behaviour in terms of culture, economy and the environment. The bar_cycle is a dynamic and versatile addition to the streetscape and public spaces of Milan as it facilitates a recycling and vending system of glass drink bottles whilst also offering a meeting point for social behaviour and cultural events. bar_cycle works by developing a number of ecologies: city, urban, cultural, economic and environmental. More Details >>

Chester General Station

£1.5 million upgrade of existing facilities and provision of new retail, information and ticketing kiosks within existing Grade II* listed railway station.

Client: Arriva Trains Wales

Role: Project Architect, concept design, detail design, tender and site supervision

Heliodays in the Rainy City

Invited exhibition at Urbis, 2001. Selected participants were asked to design a sundial for deisgnated sites across Manchester. This scheme was prepared with Andrew Capewell, Andrew Bamford and Mike Cuniff for Ducie Street canal basin. The sundial was conceived as a closed system that collected energy and distributed in to 12 nodal points on a matrix that connected previously severed arteries of the urban grid. Nodes were formally expressed as 'leaves', 'fruit', 'spores' and 'parasites'. More Details >>

manctransit

A web based image bank containing photographs of functional and industrial artefacts that support and sustain urban life. This is a live project that is updated periodically to reflect academic and personal interests and travels. www.manctransit.co. More Details >>

Middleton Arena

£15 million civic and leisure centre in Middleton, nr. Rochdale.

Client: RMBC

Roles: Procurement, concept design, detail design and tender stages of scheme including public realm works and wider urban masterplanning.

Completed: 2009

northmancbeds

A creative collective of artists working in digital media. Output has included performance based art across Europe and the production of digital music made physical in the analogue format of 12" vinyl records. www.northmancbeds.co. More Details >>

Parachute Pavilion

Competition entry with Regina Huser. A new pavilion adjacent the 'Parachute' ride at Coney Island, New York. The structure is intended to address the datum between ground and boardwalk by means of a continuous sequential journey puntuated by the framing of the everday elements of the landscape. The formal resolution was driven by the approach, defined vistas and vertical shift. The desire to consider the theme of journey and the monumental quality of normality was driven by Robert Smithson's writing and the 1979 film 'The Warriors'. More Details >>

Recycle City

Presented as a parallel component of State Legacy is an intervention and exhibition of new research-by-design work from team-bau. This project investigates the ecological issues raised as a consequence of industrialisation. Through the analysis and synthesis of data generated by the original industrial city, Manchester is used as a vehicle to explain dynamic solutions that offer both ecological sustainability and adaptability to changing needs and future use. By communicating creative strategic proposals this continuing research project seeks to form a more cohesive perspective upon the material benefits and unwanted side effects of industrialisation. The emergent post-industrial landscape evolves through the integration of natural systems and man-made processes combined with the various levels of public interaction and events to develop an urban master-plan whose adaptability enables ecologically and culturally sustainable relationships to exist. More Details >>

Silt City

Competition submission with colleagues for urban lagoon park in Venice. Co-authors, Dr. Nick Dunn, Ming Chung + Nick Tyson "We propose a framework of interacting systems that will initiate an event landscape across the island of Sacca San Mattia and also address the wider lagoon area. We call this landscape Silt City in reference to its temporal and evolutionary nature as a result of a series of fluctuating depositions and dispersals over time. As a landscape of events, the island directly addresses the tension existing between global interest and local needs, in which tourism can coexist with the extant social conditions of Venice by providing both additional recreation for the citizens and alleviation from the current overcrowding due to tourist influx. More Details >>

Research

A selection of recent research outputs.

Exhibitions

Brook, R. and Dodge, M., 2012. Infra_MANC: Post-war Mancunian Architecture, CUBE Gallery & RIBA Hub, 24th February - 17th March.

Dunn, N. and Brook, R., 2009. Shaping the Future: Heritage Open Days, Town Hall, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, 10-13 September 2009.

team-bau, 2009. State Legacy, Cornerhouse and Grosvenor Gallery, Manchester, 2nd April - 8th May 2009.

Jointly Authored Book

Brook, R. and Dunn, N., 2011. 'Urban Maps: Instruments of Narrative and Interpretation in the City', Ashgate, Farnham, UK.

Edited Books

Brook, R. and Dunn, N., 2009. 'Isolative Urbanism: an ecology of control', bauprint.

Mills, G., Fitzpatrick, J., Chadwick D., O'Donnell, C., Islam A., Ellis D., Brown F.,, 2001. 'Manchester Architecture Papers', The Manchester School of Architecture.

Book Chapters

Brook, R. and Dunn, N., 2009. 'The Control of Space: mediating fear in the urban condition.'. In Isolative Urbanism, 1, 7-14, bauprint, Manchester.

Brook, R., 2008. 'Learning Lessons: Post-war architecture of the universities'. In Manchester School of Architecture (eds.) MSA2 Yearbook 2008, 33-36, MSA.

Internet Publications

Brook, R., 2008. 'The Hollaway Wall', www.c20society.org.uk - Building of the Month, http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/building/0812_hollaway_wall/txt_hollaway_wall.html.

Journal Articles

Brook, R., 2012. 'Building as Sign: Architecture in the Image Economy', The International Journal of the Image, Volume 1, Issue 4, 67-82.

Brook, R., 2012. 'Police Brutality', The Modernist, 4, 12-15.

Brook, R., 2011. 'A Hidden Chapel', Greater Manchester Churches Preservation Society, Winter 2011/12, 9.

Brook, R., 2011. 'Boldly Gone', The Modernist, 1, 10-11.

Brook, R., 2011. 'Hard Brilliance', The Modernist, 2, 14-15.

Brook, R., 2011. 'Manchester', C20 The magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, Autumn 2011, 18-19.

Brook, R., 2011. 'Manchester Chapels', C20 The Magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, Spring 2011, 29.

Brook, R., 2009. 'Church Ceramics', Glazed Expressions, Issue No.63, Spring 2009, 16-17.

Brook, R., 2009. 'Post-war Academic Buildings in Manchester', A. Architecture and Built Environment, 6 Spring 2009, 16-23.

Brook, R., 2009. 'Underley Hall Chapel, Kirkby Lonsdale', C20 The Magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, Autumn 2009, 17.

Brook, R., 2008. 'St. Augustine's Church, Manchester', C20 The Magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, Spring 2008, 12.

Presentations

Brook, R. and Dunn, N., 2011. 'Data Mining: Abstract Urban Topographies', Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference 2011: The Geographical Imagination, Royal Geographical Society and Imperial College, London, 31 August - 2 September 2011.

Brook, R., 2009. 'Manchester Modern - Planning Policy & the Shape of the City', 20th Century Society NW Lecture, Manchester, 7th October 2009.

Brook, R., 2009. 'Modern Architecture + Planning in Manchester', American Institute of Architects UK: Urban Regeneration, Urbis, Manchester, UK, 23.04.09-26.04.09.

Dunn, N. and Brook, R., 2009. 'The City and The Control of Space', Metropolitan Desires: Cultural Reconfigurations of the European City Space, Manchester Metropolitan University, 8-9 September 2009.

Other Outputs

Brook, R., Chung, M., Dunn, N., Tyson, T., 2011. 'Emerge: Spatial Design Report', Commissioned report into formal design solutions for east Manchester recycling cooperative.

Brook, R., 2011. 'Manchester Modern', A curated set of photos for GMCRO from the Manchester Local Image Collection.

Dunn, N. and Brook, R., 2011. '[Re_Map]: the image of the urban landscape', Co-chaired conference session at the Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference 2011: The Geographical Imagination.

Brook, R., 2010. 'Manchester Modern: The Shape of the City', Thesis submitted to the RIBA Library..

Tyson, N., Brook, R., Chung, M., & Dunn, N., 2009. 'Design Briefing Report for EMERGE Recycling Manchester'.