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Click
on images for larger color views. [Google Earth link]
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.
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