Post-War Designed Landscapes — ‘Elegant and Simple Solutions’ to ‘Down to Earth Problems’: The Landscape Architecture of Michael Brown and Preben Jakobsen
In a new series of articles for the Society, Luca Csepely-Knorr and Karen Fitzsimon explore the evolution and impact of landscape architecture in the post-war era. Here they explore the parallel yet diverse careers of two important yet overlooked figures who were key to the expansion of the profession in the 1960s and 70s .
This series is published in conjunction with the upcoming lecture series ‘England’s Post-war Designed Landscapes: Rediscovered and Revalued’ at the Gardens Trust, and the current series of events on post-war infrastructure with an associated exhibition by Jen Orpin at the Modernist Society.
Preben Jakobsen, Broadwater Park, Denham (1982–84). Photo: Historic England.
Landscapes of housing estates, business parks and New Towns were key new contexts for landscape architects to work within during the post-war period. These ‘down to Earth’ projects were key in creating the ‘everyday landscapes’ of post-war Britain.[1] The Brunel Estate in London, Fieldend in Twickenham and Broadwater Park in Denham are all examples of these new types of works; all have recently been registered by Historic England. The landscape architects behind these three projects, Michael Brown (1923–1996) and Preben Jakobsen (1934–2012), were both prolific and award-winning designers, whose oeuvre is not yet fully appreciated or explored. They both worked for Eric Lyons & Partners for Span Developments, but they also shared another important – although in this particular period not unique – experience. While spending their whole career in the UK, they both studied landscape architecture abroad: Brown under Ian McHarg at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jakobsen at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
Educational opportunities for aspiring landscape architects in the UK after the war were scarce, and many significant figures studied abroad to then return and lead very successful practices, bringing back with them important international ideas. Although some opportunities had been available during the 1930s (for instance at Reading and Manchester), and other courses operated during the war (for instance at the Regent Street Polytechnic and the School of Planning in Gordon Square, London), it was only in 1947 that the Institute of Landscape Architects (now the Landscape Institute) announced that two university lectureships were to be created at King’s College, University of Durham, and at the University College London. The main period of growth for education in landscape architecture was to take place in the 1960s and 1970s, but Brown and Jakobsen both trained before that, thus their knowledge and experience contributed to not just the design of post-war landscapes, but also to the training of landscape architects.
Michael Brown, Lancaster Road (West) Estate, Kensington, London (1970). Photo: Luca Csepely-Knorr.
Michael Basil Brown was born in Edinburgh in 1922 and, at the start of and after the war (1940–41 and 1947–51), studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. Following his studies, he was an intern at the architectural practice of Basil Spence, at the time when the practice was working on projects such as Coventry Cathedral and the Festival of Britain. After his internship, Brown worked for the London County Council’s Schools Division and for the George Trew Dunn Partnership. In 1955, he received a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the first cohort of students at the Master of Landscape Architecture programme directed by Ian McHarg, where out of nine students, six were from Britain.
As well as studying in the United States, Brown also worked there in the practice of Dan Kiley, a pivotal designer in American modernist landscape architecture. During his work in Kiley’s office, Brown had the chance to assist Kiley on flagship projects, such as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York and the iconic garden of Miller House (owned by industrialist Irvine Miller), where Kiley collaborated with Eero Saarinen. Interestingly, the recently Grade II registered Cummins Engine Factory, Darlington – Kiley’s only known work in Britain – was designed for the same client, and has many similarities to the Miller Garden.
Michael Brown, University of Essex, Wivenhoe (1965). Photo: Luca Csepely-Knorr.
In 1958–59, Brown returned to Pennsylvania to assist McHarg in teaching, and collaborated with him on a Rockefeller Institute-funded research project, together with Gordon Cullen and Ian Nairn. In 1959, Brown returned to the UK, and worked with Eric Lyons on various housing projects, including the now Grade II registered landscapes of Fieldend, Twickenham. By 1962, he had established his own practice, and became involved in all scales and types of landscape-architectural projects, from housing to regional planning. Brown is best known for his award-winning housing-estate landscapes, such as the newly Grade II registered Brunel Estate in London; the Winstanley Estate in Battersea; and the Lancaster Road (West) Housing estate, including Grenfell Tower. However, Brown’s practice was wide-ranging, included such schemes as Redditch New Town’s strategic plan; the University of Essex’s landscape development plan; the roof garden of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester; Heathrow’s central area; and Euston Station.
Michael Brown, Winstanley Road Estate, Livingstone Road Section, Battersea, London (1962–66). Photo: Luca Csepely-Knorr.
Brown is often recognised for the technical details of his designs, such as the ‘carefully detailed brickwork’ appraised by Historic England in the case of the Brunel Estate. These skilfully designed details, together with the importance he placed on gaining a thorough understanding of sites through rigorous research methods, were indications of the benefits of having studied under McHarg. Using these techniques, Brown managed to create what he called ‘total environments’: spaces that offered opportunities for a variety of users. As he stated, ‘designing spaces that acquire meaning and significance for the people who use them is [. . .] the fundamental challenge to a designer’. [2] He addressed this by creating landscapes that offered ‘choices and opportunities’ that could become integrated with their users’ needs. This understanding of the ‘facts’ to create ‘values’ was key to the success of Brown’s work.
Preben Jakobsen was born on the ‘garden island’ of Fyn, Denmark in 1934. His father was a nursery-man and landscape designer, especially known for his dry-stone ‘boulder work’ on manorial estates. Post-war deprivation and the lack of a local secondary school resulted in Jakobsen leaving school at the age of 14 to work alongside his father. In 1951, he commenced a Journeyman’s Certificate in Horticulture, supplementing his practical experience with night school. Through a connection of his father’s, he was introduced to Carl Theodor Sørensen, an influential figure in the development of modern Danish landscape architecture, who recommended that he visit England to expand his plant knowledge, improve his English and explore its rich culture of historic gardens. Jakobsen duly took a position at the pedigree nursery of Fromow and Sons in Surrey. This led him to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he graduated with a Diploma in Horticulture in 1957.
Preben Jakobsen, The Lane, Blackheath, London (1964). Photo: Karen Fitzsimon.
A visit to an exhibition on the Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 1956 proved a turning point. It opened Jakobsen’s mind to modern art and its potential to inspire landscape design, resulting in his later conviction that landscape design deserves a place amongst the arts. Thereafter, he resolved to study landscape architecture and commenced at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, graduating in 1961 with a Diploma in Landscape Architecture. The interdisciplinary atelier-style teaching led by Sørensen, with input from the likes of Sven-Ingvar Andersson, Arne Jacobsen and Peter Bredsdorff, provided Jakobsen not only with a rounded education in landscape architecture but also an appreciation of the importance of the integration of architecture, landscape and community to produce a high-quality environment. He later declared that ‘I have come to realise that the training at the Royal Academy has had far more influence on what I actually do and believe in now than any other training I’ve had.’
Certainly, Jakobsen’s Scandinavian education, allied with his design ability, attracted proponents of English modernism and, following an advertisement in the Architect’s Journal, he joined Eric Lyons and Ivor Cunningham at their Mill House Studio, taking over from Brown. Jakobsen’s approach to landscape architecture pivoted around an acute understanding of plants and how to use them effectively in adroitly expressed and sculptural landscape compositions. His relationship with Lyons was fruitful, and he remained the studio’s landscape specialist for eight years, working mostly on Span housing developments, including highly regarded schemes such as The Lane, Blackheath (1964) and Templemere, Weybridge (1965).
In 1969, he and his architect wife Maggi established Jakobsen Landscape Architects, which quickly established a reputation among the architectural community for its modernist stance and innovative landscape design. He actively enjoyed the rigour and professionalism demanded by interdisciplinary team work, and his uncompromising approach to precise and inventive detailing was in demand by architects such as Colin Stansfield Smith, Bill Pack of EPR Architects, Ralph Erskine and Ted Cullinan. The practice undertook a wide variety of award-winning projects across all typologies, including housing, civic, health and education, and developed a specialism in the emerging modern business park. This is expressed most vividly at the recently Grade II registered Broadwater Park in Denham (1980–84), where he transformed a contaminated site into one of seemingly great scale, yet combined with places of absolute intimacy. The EPR-designed High Tech office slab reflects a 70-metre diameter lawn enclosed by a neatly clipped field maple hedge. The geometry of the space is counterpoised by a secluded and richly planted flower garden.
Michael Brown stated that landscape architecture needed ‘elegant and simple’ solutions to ‘down to Earth problems’, something that is true for his and Jakobsen’s work. Their designs for ‘everyday’ situations created excellent spaces, for which both of them won several awards, and their work was widely published both nationally and internationally. In 1993, Jakobsen was awarded the Landscape Institute’s rarely issued Gold Medal. They both contributed to the education of the following generations of landscape architects: Jakobsen combined practice with lectureships at Hammersmith College of Art and Building and Greenwich University, while Brown contributed to several courses both in the UK and in America. Their very different backgrounds – Jakobsen’s in horticulture and Brown’s in architecture – can be clearly seen in their specialist areas of planting and hard landscaping, yet they both brought new methods and understandings to British landscape architecture from their studies abroad.
[1] Hazel Conway (2000), ‘Everyday Landscapes: Public Parks from 1930 to 2000’, Garden History, 28:1 pp.117–34.
[2] Michael Brown (1981), ‘Placemaking Start with Facts, Finish with Values’, Landscape Architecture, May 1981, p.382.
Luca Csepely-Knorr is a chartered landscape architect and art historian, working as Reader at the Manchester School of Architecture. Her research centres on the history of late 19th and 20th century landscape architecture, with a particular emphasis on the development of the design theory of public spaces. She is Co-Investigator of the AHRC funded project ‘Landscapes of Post-War Infrastructure: Culture, Amenity, Heritage and Industry’ and co-convener of the multidisciplinary conference and research network ‘How Women Build?’.
Twitter: @lucaknorr Instagram: lucaknorr
Karen Fitzsimon is a chartered landscape architect, garden historian and horticulturalist. She has extensive experience of working in the public and private sector across a range of landscape projects. She co-curated the 2017 Gardens Trust symposium ‘Mid- to Late 20th–Century Designed Landscapes: Overlooked, Undervalued and At Risk?’ and co-designed and managed the associated ‘Compiling the Record’ campaign. She worked with Historic England on its ‘Modern Gardens and Landscapes’ project and was a member of its post-war landscape expert panel that led to the addition of 24 sites, or elements of sites, to the National Heritage List for England in 2020. She is currently undertaking doctoral research at University of Westminster about the landscape practice of Preben Jakobsen within the context of British post-war landscape architecture.
Twitter: @KarenFitzsimon Instagram: karen_fitzsimon
