8. Brunel Estate

9 November 2021

Brunel Estate is probably the best remaining landscape of council housing that was designed and implemented by Michael Brown.  In the early 1970s, the Michael Brown Partnership was one of the largest landscape practices in the UK, employing over 20 staff, and as Tom Turner has said, it ‘produced the best UK housing landscape designs of the 1960s and 1970s.’ Colin Moore will tell a very condensed and partial story of the project from pre-development to the present.

Colin Moore is a Landscape Architect and Urban Designer who has recently retired having worked in the landscape industry for 50 years.  He was an associate of John Kelsey Associates for 6 years and then senior partner of Moore Piet + Brookes for 20 years before becoming an independent landscape consultant.  Early in his career he worked for Michael Brown Partnership for a year (1973-74) as the Clerk of Works for one project and undertook site work for many other projects, including the Brunel Estate during construction. Colin is well known to many landscape architects for his 35 years teaching for the final professional exam and his expertise in construction and maintenance contracts and the CDM Regulations. He is chair of the JCLI Contracts Forum and secretary of FOLAR.