ISOKON BUILDING (LAWN ROAD FLATS) ARCHITECTURE: MODERNIST LANDMARK IN HAMPSTEAD

The Isokon Building — universally known as the Lawn Road Flats — is one of the most significant works of modernist architecture in Britain. Designed as an experiment in communal living, the building introduced the principles of the European avant-garde to a quiet street in Hampstead, and went on to become one of the most storied addresses of the twentieth century.

Completed in 1934, the Isokon Building remains a rare and largely intact example of International Modernism in London — a Grade I listed landmark that is still, in many respects, ahead of its time.

  • Written by Gavin Paisley, director & model-maker at Chisel & Mouse based in East Sussex, England.
  • Last updated: 24-Mar-26.

Photograph by Steve Cadman, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr.

Isokon Building architectural model — front façade, handmade by Chisel & Mouse

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This building is also available as a Isokon Building architectural object, interpreted and crafted by Chisel & Mouse.

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What is the Isokon Building?

The Isokon Building was commissioned by Jack Pritchard — furniture manufacturer, design entrepreneur, and committed modernist — and his wife Molly. Pritchard had founded the Isokon company, its name a contraction of Isometric Unit Construction, with the ambition of applying modernist principles to both furniture and everyday life.

Located on Lawn Road, Hampstead, London, the building was conceived not merely as a block of flats but as a proof of concept: a demonstration that modern architecture could reshape the way people lived. The 34 flats were designed to be serviced, minimal, and communal — freeing residents from domestic labour and encouraging a shared intellectual life.

Facts panel

The Isokon Building was designed by architect Wells Coates, a Canadian-born engineer-turned-architect who was one of the leading figures of British modernism in the 1930s.

  • Architect: Wells Coates
  • Client: Jack and Molly Pritchard
  • Completed: 1934
  • Construction period: 1933–1934
  • Location: Lawn Road, Hampstead, London, NW3 2XD
  • Also known as: The Lawn Road Flats
  • Number of flats: 34
  • Original use: Residential — communal living experiment
  • Current use: Residential (key workers, shared ownership)
  • Restoration architect: Avanti Architects
  • Restoration completed: 2003
  • Architectural style: International Modernism
  • Designation / listed status: Grade I (Historic England listing 1357814)

Architectural style and design approach

The Isokon Building is a foundational example of International Modernism in Britain, drawing directly on the principles of Le Corbusier and the continental avant-garde.

Coates was a close follower of Le Corbusier's dictum that a house should be a machine à habiter — a machine for living. The Isokon flats were designed to embody that idea literally. Key architectural characteristics include:

  • Reinforced concrete construction, expressed honestly and without ornament
  • The building raised on pilotis, freeing the ground plane
  • Long cantilevered access balconies — the "running decks" — creating a bold horizontal rhythm across the south-facing façade
  • Compact, precisely engineered flat interiors drawing on Existenzminimum principles
  • Built-in furniture conceived as an integral part of the architecture

The result is a building driven entirely by logic and social purpose, in which form follows function with almost no concession to decoration or historical reference.

Materials, façade, and spatial organisation

The Isokon Building is constructed in reinforced concrete — at the time still an unusual and provocative choice for residential architecture in Britain. The raw material is left largely unadorned, giving the building its characteristic flat, planar quality.

The building's most distinctive feature is its system of external access galleries: cantilevered concrete decks that run the full length of the south façade at each level, giving residents direct access to their flats while simultaneously functioning as the building's primary architectural gesture. Seen in elevation, the stacked horizontals read as a single, powerful composition.

The individual flats were small by conventional standards — purposefully so. Coates and Pritchard believed that minimum-standard units, efficiently planned and fully fitted, were architecturally and socially preferable to larger, conventionally furnished rooms. Built-in joinery, later supplemented by furniture designed by Marcel Breuer, made every flat feel considered and complete.

The communal Isobar — a shared bar and restaurant on the ground floor, later redesigned by Breuer — was central to the social vision of the building.

Photograph by Gillfoto, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Isokon Building and the Bauhaus in London

The Lawn Road Flats quickly became the most intellectually charged address in London. When the Nazi regime closed the Bauhaus in 1933, several of its most prominent figures fled to Britain, and a number settled at the Isokon Building.

Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, lived here from 1934 to 1937. László Moholy-Nagy took a flat, as did Marcel Breuer, who went on to design furniture for the building and the wider Isokon range. The building's guest list also included the crime writer Agatha Christie, who kept a flat here for nearly three decades.

Less remarked upon at the time: the building also attracted the attention of Soviet intelligence. Arnold Deutsch, the NKVD handler who recruited the Cambridge Five, lived at Lawn Road Flats, and the building became a node in a spy network that would eventually shake the British establishment to its foundations.

The Isokon Building's decline and restoration

The postwar decades were difficult for the Isokon Building. The Isokon company dissolved during the Second World War, and the flats were sold to Camden London Borough Council in 1972. Standards of maintenance declined, and by the 1990s the building was effectively derelict.

Restoration came in 2003, when Avanti Architects — specialists in the conservation of modernist buildings — undertook a careful refurbishment for the Notting Hill Housing Trust. The work returned the building as closely as possible to its original condition. It is now occupied primarily by key workers under a shared-ownership scheme.

The Isokon Gallery, housed within the building, tells the story of the Pritchards, Wells Coates, the Bauhaus émigrés, and the furniture and ideas that the building inspired.

Photograph by Justinc, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Isokon Building as a symbol of modernism in Britain

The Isokon Building occupies an unusual position in the history of British architecture. It arrived early — before modernism had any significant foothold in Britain — and it arrived whole, without compromise. It proposed a way of living that was decades ahead of mainstream practice, and it attracted a community that shaped art, design, and politics across the century.

Its Grade I listed status, awarded in 2000, reflects not just architectural quality but genuine historical importance: the recognition that the Lawn Road Flats are a building where something significant happened, and that the building itself made it possible.

Interpreting the Isokon Building as an architectural object

The Isokon Building translates particularly well into an architectural model due to:

  • the strong horizontal rhythm of its running deck façade
  • the clarity and consistency of its massing
  • the abstract, planar quality of its concrete surfaces

When reduced to object form, the building's underlying geometry becomes still more legible, and the rigour of Coates's design reads as pure sculptural composition.

Chisel & Mouse's interpretation focuses on capturing the architectural essence of the building — its form, rhythm, and proportion — rather than reproducing surface detail.

View the Isokon Building architectural model

Visiting the Isokon Building today

The Isokon Building stands on Lawn Road, Hampstead, London, NW3 2XD. It is a private residential building, but its south-facing façade is clearly visible from the street. The Isokon Gallery is open to the public on selected days and tells the full story of the building and its remarkable community.

Frequently asked questions about the Isokon Building

Who designed the Isokon Building?

The Isokon Building was designed by Wells Coates (1895–1958), a Canadian-born architect and designer who was one of the leading figures of British modernism. Coates co-founded the MARS Group (Modern Architectural Research Group) in 1933 — the British wing of CIAM — and is also known for his radio and bakelite product designs for Ekco. The Isokon Building was commissioned by Jack and Molly Pritchard, who founded the Isokon company to promote modernist design and living in Britain.

When was the Isokon Building built?

The building was completed in 1934, making it one of the earliest purpose-built modernist residential buildings in Britain. It was conceived as a minimum-living experiment — each flat was designed to be as compact and efficiently planned as possible, with communal facilities including a kitchen, bar, and laundry intended to reduce the domestic burden on residents.

What architectural style is the Isokon Building?

The Isokon Building is a key example of International Modernism, drawing directly on the principles of Le Corbusier and the European avant-garde — reinforced concrete construction, flat roofs, horizontal strip windows, and the elimination of applied ornament. It arrived in Hampstead at a moment when the neighbourhood was becoming a refuge for European modernist émigrés fleeing fascism, and its architecture was a physical embodiment of their ideas.

Where is the Isokon Building located?

On Lawn Road in Hampstead, London, NW3 2XD — also known as the Lawn Road Flats, after its address. The building sits on a sloping site in one of London's most intellectually distinctive neighbourhoods, within walking distance of Hampstead Heath.

Why is the Isokon Building important?

The Isokon Building is significant on two distinct grounds. Architecturally, it is one of the earliest and most complete expressions of modernist ideas in British residential design. Historically, its resident list reads as a remarkable convergence of 20th-century talent: Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, and Marcel Breuer all lived there after fleeing Nazi Germany; Agatha Christie was a long-term resident; and several figures connected to wartime Soviet espionage — including members of the Cambridge spy ring — used the building as a meeting point, earning it the nickname the "Pink Dollshouse" in MI5 files.

Is the Isokon Building listed?

Yes. The Isokon Building was awarded Grade I listed status in 2000 — the highest tier of listing in England, reserved for buildings of exceptional interest. The building was sensitively restored in 2003–04 by Avanti Architects, returning it to residential use after a period of neglect.

What is the Isokon Gallery?

The Isokon Gallery is a small museum housed within the building's original garage space that documents the history of the building, its remarkable roster of residents, and the Isokon furniture range — including Marcel Breuer's Long Chair, one of the most celebrated pieces of 20th-century furniture design, which was produced by the Isokon company and closely associated with the building.

What are the Lawn Road Flats?

The Lawn Road Flats is the common name for the Isokon Building, referring to its address on Lawn Road, Hampstead. The two names are used interchangeably: "Isokon Building" emphasises its architectural and design heritage, while "Lawn Road Flats" is the name by which it was known to its original residents and in contemporary accounts.

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