ISOKON BUILDING

Earlier, the three had founded the company Isokon to produce buildings, interiors and the furniture to fit them out. The building Isokon was concieved as a serviced block of studio flats for working people who have no time for domestic troubles, with services including everything from laundry to cooked meals from the communal kitchen sent up to individual flats via a dumb waiter. The marketing brochure stated “All you have to bring with you is a rug, a picture and an armchair.” During the War, Isokon flourished as its concrete structure offered protection against bomb damage. Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Naum Slutszky, Agatha Christie and Soviet spy Arnold Deutsch were some of residents of the building. Pritchard himself lived in the penthouse that served as a party space for London’s emerging modernist scene. Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson regularly visited the communal bar, known as the ‘Isobar’. In 1969 the Pritchards sold the building and by the 1990s it became home to rats. In 2001, Avanti Architects won a competition to bring Isokon back to life. They converted garage into a museum to tell the story of the flats and its residents.