New book celebrates the architecture of Brooks & Hird’s cabins

It’s almost two years since I started listing holiday homes on this site. Full disclosure: when the idea first came to me, I had just finished a particularly intense and stressful year of designing five books back-to-back.

I promised myself that the following year, I’d focus on achieving a better work-life balance. Having already written Modernist Escapes, published by Prestel in 2021, the concept of modernist getaways wasn’t exactly new to me. But I thought, what if I spent six months travelling the country, visiting select holiday properties that fit the bill, photographing them, and listing them for free for a limited time? It would get me away from my desk and help launch the idea.

I put a call out on Instagram to see if anyone had a property that would fit the bill and would be interested. One of the first people to respond with a resounding YES was Bethan Dalton, owner of the Graham Brooks-designed Scandinavian-style cabin Cabin Corgi in West Wales.

I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of Brooks or his cabins before. As a research nut, I was immediately hooked and started scouring the internet for anything I could find on him.

I stayed at Caban Corgi in the spring of 2023, and although I assured Bethan I could make my way there on foot from the nearest bus stop, her warmth, openness, and kindness shone through when she insisted on picking me up from the train station and driving me to the cabin. Just as well, because upon reflection, the 20-minute walk along a winding, narrow B-road with no pavement would’ve likely been a fatal decision!

I spent a peaceful couple of days there, enjoying an unexpected stretch of sunshine, surrounded by trees. I drank gin and tonics on the terrace, which Bethan kindly provided, along with excellent local coffee. I became even more obsessed with the cabins, researching others that the architect had designed, including the Bierwood cabins in Manorbier. I managed to find one for sale in almost original condition, and had I had the money at the time, I think I would have bought it on the spot. I posted it on Instagram, and I’m pretty sure it went under offer soon after because of that.

Last year, Bethan told me she was co-authoring a book on Graham Brooks and his partner John Hird, and I’m delighted to hear that the book is now available for pre-sale.

Cabin Crew—published by The Modernist and written by Peter Halliday, Bethan Dalton, Lizzie Biggs and Jessica Halliday—takes a deep dive into the story of the Brooks & Hird partnership and their obsession with designing the perfect holiday cabin. The book blends architectural appreciation with social history, taking readers on a photo tour of current-day cabins in Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Argyll.

The 196 pages are filled with a mix of original photographs, drawings and images of the cabins as they are now, alongside references to other iconic holiday cabins by modernist greats like Le Corbusier and Arne Jacobsen.

Pre-order yours here.

Cabin Corgi is available to rent from £75 per night and sleeps up to 4 people.