Isokon Flats

Isokon Flats in London, England by Avanti Architects

Many people know of the Isokon Flats for its most famous occupant, Agatha Christie, who lived at what was then called the Lawn Road Flats from 1940-46. While people might also know of the project's other war-era tenants (Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Lazslo Moholy-Nagy), the building itself is unfortunately, to most, nothing more than a "giant liner without any funnels" or as a pretty picture snapped in its heyday. The reinforced-concrete housing project is the work of Jack and Molly Pritchard and their architect Wells Coates. Together they envisioned a block of serviced flats (combined living/bedroom with kitchenette, bathroom and dressing room) to be fitted out with the Pritchards line of innovative furniture, Isokon. Featuring a communal restaurant (the Isobar -- designed by Marcel Breuer), laundry facilities and a roof garden, the building was distinctively modern in function as well as appearance.

Life in and for the flats wasn't as rosy after the war. A lack of maintenance and a concomitant deterioration plagued the building as it switched hands from the Pritchards to the New Statesman in 1969 and to the Camden Council just three years later. Granted Grade I status in 2000, Camden held a competition to restore the building to its former glory, a competition won by a team comprising the Notting Hill Home Ownership, Avanti Architects, Alan Conisbee Associates as structural engineers and Max Fordham, services engineers. Faced not only with material and service deterioration and disrepair but also a 1950s exterior stucco job and the unfortunate replacement of the original steel windows with ill-matched aluminum substitutes, the team had quite a job ahead of them.

According to Avanti Architects, the measures required to restore the building included "the requisite remedial structural measures and comprehensive rehabilitation of the reinforced concrete fabric; replacement of asphalt waterproof coverings and upgrading of insulation values; renewal of wall/ceiling/floor finishes, windows and doors; refurbishment of light metalwork elements and fitted joinery and complete renewal of services." Basically every surface and subsurface needed some attention in order to end up with a building not only true to the original but also one that responds to today's needs and can meet future demands. To address this, new services (including concealed boilers) were installed with new appliances in the kitchens and bathrooms. The Isobar had already been converted into penthouse flats and these were also upgraded. In all, 25 flats follow the old layout to preserve some historical continuity and "the salon environment of community living." These will be sold to key workers (nurses, police officers, fire fighters, social workers, teachers, etc.) with eleven further units including Pritchard's -- complete with original fittings -- being sold on the open market to help cover construction costs.

Architecturally, the expressively streamlined exterior -- specifically the long, Lawn Road elevation that sculpts the external corridors and stairs -- comes across brilliantly and crisply in its newly-restored state. The soft corner curves reinforce the building's solidity that grounds it in its place, something that separates Coates from his contemporary Le Corbusier who would have raised the flats off the ground on pilotis. Putting these formal differences aside, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye is notable for helping to raise awareness for the preservation of Modernist buildings. Relegated to the trash heap, the masterpiece was saved late last century and is a popular "archi-tourist" location. With the 1988 formation and growing popularity of Docomomo, not to mention the paradoxically accelerated decline of many Modern buildings, the time is at hand to decide if this era's physical embodiment is worth preserving. If anything, the well-done restoration of the Isokon Flats should push architects, communities, clients, and the public into making the decision towards preserving worthwhile Modernist structures.