[2] She trained as an architect between 1961-7 at the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, where she was one of a handful of women students in her year.
After a short spell in architectural practice in Helsinki, notably not at the office of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto as her father wanted, and then at Casson Condor in London, she returned to Cambridge to undertake her Ph.D. on Soviet Town Planning, which she completed in 1975.
A fluent Russian speaker, Cooke was significantly instrumental in raising awareness in the West both about Russian visual culture and the sorry plight of a number of Soviet buildings, which she did through her UK chairmanship of Docomomo (the international working party for the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement).
[3] Cooke amassed a significant collection of books, posters, and ephemera over the course of her working life.
[5] Cooke died following a road accident in Cambridge on 20 February 2004, when "at the height of a research and writing career".