Interview with Chris Cross

Chris joined MKDC as an architect in 1971, Initially driving from London daily with Mike Gold. But they later moved to Stacey Hill Farm, then owned by MKDC. Initially they wanted to amend the Master Plan, but their ideas were not accepted. From the outset, Chris and his team (who became known as The Grunt Group) were working on Woughton area (South MK), focussing on Netherfield. He shows the interviewers various early drawings, all using the long block layout, commenting: ‘… we wanted to ensure that all houses faced a public space’. He explains their idea of one continuous roof level; flat roofs were in the original designs: ‘… it felt more modern’. System building and design flexibility were popular, and combined with concerns about pollution from brickworks, they decided to use timber construction. At the end of 1972, Chris moved back to London, by which time the overall design of Netherfield was agreed; other members of the team worked on detailed design.

The interview continues to discuss Netherfield. Chris confirms the plan was for 1,000 houses in the grid square, social housing designed to Parker Morris standards. It was ‘architecture for social purpose’. They discuss the different choices of building materials & methods in South MK and North MK (Galley Hill, etc.). Chris comments that maintenance of Netherfield has not been good: the estate needs to be ‘made prouder of itself somehow’. At the time of building he recalls there was expectation of a forty-year building life. He believes that flat roofs nowadays are built much better. Chris agrees that Derek Walker gave the team the freedom to design innovative schemes; but he did not advise or criticise. Reviewing drawings of housing in Netherfield, in Runcorn and Highgate (flexible housing), in editions of ‘Architectural Design’, Chris comments that the Runcorn scheme may have attracted Derek Walker’s attention: ‘We were kind of anticipating computers the way we drew… pencil drawings with flourishes; … you test something by drawing carefully; the bigger scale it is the better’.