The little-known story of Welsh modernism
'Cabin Crew', a new book published this spring by The Modernist, brings the spotlight to Cardiff-based practice Hird & Brooks

Cabin Crew showcases the work of Cardiff-based practice Hird & Brooks who, from the 1950s-1980s, built sleek villas in the Vale of Glamorgan and holiday parks and cabins in the Welsh woodlands. As the UK continues to nurture ties with Scandinavia, this new book reveals Danish-inspired cabin culture in Wales and is published next month by The Modernist.
Two of the book's authors, Peter Halliday and Bethan Dalton, own Hird & Brooks cabins - Halliday at Bierwood, a complex of 17-holiday homes built in the 1970s in Pembrokeshire - and Dalton at the Penlan Holiday Park. Together, they set about documenting this little-known story of British modernism.
Flicking through 'Cabin Crew'
Graham Brooks graduated from the Welsh School of Architecture and in 1956 came to work for John Hird who was running a practice in Cardiff. Despite being seemingly polar opposites – Hird was affable, golf-playing, business-minded, Brooks reflective, dogmatic, and design-obsessed – they made a formidable team.
Before long, they were creating residential schemes infused with Brooks’ passion for Danish design, among them Cardiff’s Capel House (1966) and The Mount in Dinas Powys just outside the city. Here, four private developments comprising 53 homes as well as several individual homes make for a salubrious suburb that is still sought after today.
When, in the 1970s, the Forestry Commission approached them to build a nationwide network of tasteful, high-quality cabins, tucked away in the UK’s most scenic woodlands, Hird & Brooks set to work.
Employing their love of craftsmanship, materials and structure, the pair obsessed over every detail, from the woodland settings to colour schemes and fitted furniture to the custom-designed wood burners. They built more than 230 holiday cabins in Wales, Cornwall and Scotland.
By the time Hird passed away in 2009 (Brooks followed in 2020), the firm had won 17 awards and built an impressive archive in the Library of Aberystwyth. In 2002, Brookes received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Society of Architects in Wales.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Yet despite their success, Hird & Brooks’ Scandinavian summerhouse idyll never really took off in the way they had envisioned. Of the many sites planned, only five were actually built, and two of those are now gone. But it is still possible to rent a Hird & Brooks cabin in Wales - at the Penlan Holiday Park and the old Forestry Commission site at Lochaweside. Neither is in pristine condition, but they offer faded slice of homegrown hygge from a pair of unsung visionaries.
Emma O'Kelly is a freelance journalist and author based in London. Her books include Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat and she is currently working on a UK guide to wild saunas, due to be published in 2025.
-
The world’s most exclusive auto show? The Quail is now a hotspot of high-end car launches
The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering brings a few thousand well-heeled car buyers to a Californian golf course to showcase the latest in luxury and sporting auto design
-
Why everyone in LA is talking about Café Tondo
Helmed by chef Valeria Velásquez and designed by Aunt Studio, this new spot delivers Latin American buzz all day long
-
Inside the Waldorf Astoria's dazzling restoration, from cigar smoke to snowy owls
How a team of architects from SOM and a group of art conservationists brought New York's grand dame back to her original Art Deco splendor
-
Meet Studio Knight Stokoe, the landscape architects guided by ‘resilience, regeneration and empathy’
Boutique and agile, Studio Knight Stokoe crafts elegant landscapes from its base in the southwest of England – including a revived brutalist garden
-
Tour this compact Kent Coast jewel of a cabin with Studiomama
Jack Mama and Nina Tolstrup take us on a tour of their latest project – a small but perfectly formed Kent Coast cabin in Seasalter, UK
-
Boutique London rental development celebrates European courtyard living
London design and development studio Wendover unveils its newest residential project, 20 Newcourt Street, comprising nine apartments; we toured with co-founder Gabriel Chipperfield
-
A refreshed Fulham house balances its history with a series of 21st-century interventions
A Fulham house project by Bureau de Change creates a 21st-century domestic haven through a series of contemporary interventions and a deep connection to the property's historical fabric
-
The Monthly Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s favourite July houses
From geometric Japanese cottages to restored modernist masterpieces, these are the best residential projects to have crossed the architecture desk this month
-
Visiting an experimental UK home: welcome to Housestead
This experimental UK home, Housestead by Sanei + Hopkins, brings together architectural explorations and daily life in these architects’ own home
-
A house in Leamington Spa is a domestic oasis infused with contemporary sensibilities
This house in Leamington Spa, by John Pardey Architects, brings together flood risk considerations, a conservation area's historic character, and contemporary sensibilities
-
A garden explaining carbon capture in nature? Head to Kew in London
Kew unveils 'Carbon Garden', a new offering at London's Royal Botanic Gardens that's all about carbon capture within nature; and how plants and soil can be leveraged to help us battle climate change