Kensal House

This article is part of the [Sí] , a personal project curated by Marta López García where she wills to shed light on a twice silenced reality. The goal remains to recover and spread pieces of architecture displaced to the periphery; although this time focused on the work of female architects. Este artículo es parte de la serie [Sí] , comisariada por Marta López García que busca ofrecer una vision sobre una realidad doblemente silenciada. El objetivo es recuperar y difundir obras de arquitectura que han sido desplazadas a la periferia, teniendo como punto de partida proyectos de mujeres arquitectas. Kensal House is the first Urban Villageto be built in Britain, it is also the earliest modernist social housing designedfor workers and a key example to illustrate that it is not necessarily architects alone who make buildings. Kensal House es la primera Villa Urbana construida en Reino Unido, el primer proyecto de vivienda social diseñada para la clase trabajadora y un ejemplo clave para ilustrar que no solo son los arquitectos quienes producen edificios. Elizabeth Denby, who was one of the members of the design team for this project, studied Social Science and got her certificate in 1917. She then worked and volunteered in different organisations related to Social Housing, including Kensington Council,and focused on the slums and the poor living conditions of the working class in London in the inter-war period. After years of workingwithin the voluntary housing sector Denbydecided she wanted to play a more active role in the improvement of workers’ lifes through the construction of new housing. Denby started working as an advisor, writing articles and she applied for a fellowship to study rehousing schemes in Europe in 1933, which was granted. Her book ‘Europe Rehoused’ is the result of that intensive research. Moreover, she invented the role of the housing consultant to advice on the design and management of social housing.