AJ Book round up
December 2025
Henley Halebrown’s Building for Society is included in the Architects Journal round up of the year’s best architecture publications.
Architecture Editor Rob Wilson praises the volume's critical heft and the practice's ethical approach to creating civic architecture with a social purpose:
‘The book is an appropriately chunky and russet-red-coloured publication – both characteristics for which this practice’s work has become known after a recent run of solid sculptural projects, often constructed in red brick or toned concrete. These projects are among the 12 completed between 2010 and 2022 that are explored in the book. Each is analysed by architects and critics, and contextualised by thoughtful essays from practice co-founder Simon Henley and an interview with him and co-founder Gavin Hale-Brown. It’s a relatively conventional format, although the work of the practice is anything but, marked by a notable emphasis on civic-minded buildings and ones with social purpose – from primary and higher education, to social housing and a charity-run factory for veterans. This emphasis on ethical underpinnings and critical thinking grounds Henley Halebrown’s work, giving it an added heft that’s relatively rare today.’