I dont mean to be off topic but does anybody know a tool to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost my password. I would love any tips you can offer me!
Dont demolish this. All you have to do is add more glass panel and make it shiny. Or grow some vines or add some green plants by the side walk. It still can be saved believe me
I don't think the proponents of Brutalism took the grey skies and dampness of London during the winters. I live in a place that is quite rainy as well. During a dark, grey, rainy winter, the exposed grey concrete with rust stains is downright depressing. The concrete is a veritable canvas for graffiti artists. The concrete also tends to crumble more easily in damp climates.
Graffiti hooligans can be shot dead, or better yet their hands maimed via beating with metal pipes, to the point they can't even hold a spray can, eh wot?
I used to live in a tower block in Spain, and even though it was nearly identical to any estate in London, the weather and climate made such a difference.
Hard to imagine the Robin Hood blocks appealing to many potential residents, simply because of the perceived idea, that they're built for the poor, therefore, will be poorly maintained, by poorly equipped people. This doesn't hav to be the case. You only have to look at Sheffield's Park Hill redevelopment to see the potential that certain uniquely designed Brutalist structures hav. I'm the owner of a detached property, & I can HONESTLY say, these have more design merit. Done right, they're great
Also these where the most brightest of flats with the most biggest of windows so much light flooded into these flats , the sound was not loud even though in the centre of a city massive living space my brother loved living here and so did many residents from different cultures .
The fact is with the current housing crisis, high-rise flats are the only option ,if we do not want to lose our green fields or break beyond the green belt. Many high-rise flats in London built as council housing may have looked awful and grim and as little as 30 years ago probably could be bought for less than £25k. Now these grey grim blocks are considered real estate, with 2 bedroom former council flats in London costing over £500,000! The fact is the shortage of housing in London has grossly inflated prices. Of course these former council flats are not worth over £500K ! But the desperation for property has created these ridiculous prices. Property investors buying up loads of properties as speculative investments has taken away any affordable houses in London. The shortage is caused by individuals owning numerous properties but not occupying them. Legislation is needed to ensure cheap affordable housing is available in London to anyone that needs it. That means new properties are strictly for owner occupiers and a certain amount are only available to first time buyers. This means huge building and that can only be achieved with high rise flats.
Or you can build on the "green fields" like our ancestors did. If you force an expanding population divided into more units (due to more people being single) into the same space as before, you get a housing crisis like the one we have. People radically overestimate the amount of Britain that is built on. Green fields are nice, but you do not need to preserve every single one.
I started working in Tower Hamlets last year, and coming from Stevenage am used to buildings that give a feel of urban decay, but I'd never seen anything like this monstrosity. *Spectacularly* ugly. The crowning detail is the perimeter fence/wall that's made up of upright concrete slabs, and may as well have been the inspiration for the Gaza Strip wall.
They had to buffer the din of heavy traffic, and *do so on a BUDGET* ... the effect is... UNfortunate. OTOH, the buildings themselves were quite nice, VERY spacious flats, and even had *individual underground car garages* ... would kill to have that in Miami.
The woman who complains that it was fine when she had one kid but is crowded now she has five - so don't have five bloody kids then, unless you can afford to move into a bigger place!
I think really the biggest problem in London is the lack of affordable housing. Flats in Robbin Hood gardens are probably worth £500,000 each, due to the ridiculous inflation of London house prices. About £50,000 or less would be the realistic price in the ideal world. Clearly that's not possible in London unless supply massively out speeds demand and for that we need several blocks of Affordable flats of up-to 80 stories high, ONLY AVAILABLE to OWNER OCCUPIERS and LOW INCOME people with single occupant flats upto 3 bed family ones.
The Smithsons were young and experimental and it shows , watching in 2019 and this is either gone or about to be gone !! It was brutalist but I think this was a whole different type of ugly !!!
I agree...it's so ugly, it's beautiful. It is very much of its time but is very interesting all the same. The problem is always about money and resources. A place like that needs copious amounts of money lavished on it annually. Also, putting the least advantaged of society in there doesn't help. WTF...''It was ok when I moved in with one child, but now I have five!''....!
So happy this monstrous, hideous structure is to be demolished. Hopefully they will film the demolition so it can be watched over and over. This is a soulless, typically philistine creation of the 60s and 70s when architects lost the plot completely. No wonder the worst architect in the UK, Richard Rogers, wanted to preserve it! Good riddance to it!!
They're just replacing it with more of the same. Have you seen the vauxhall embankment by nine elms lane? Have you driven along the westway near Edgeware Road -- absolutely shocking
let those who hate it, move out, and the 1.5 million on waiting lists allowed to move in. to interview a women with five children, who feels overcrowded, yes, move out then, where will she go, move out then, why doesnt she?
I think in London the fact is that lenders are willing to loan ridiculous amounts of money for what are essentially shit properties. The thing that is inflating the market is cheap money which in turn is fuelled by low interest rates that fucks over savers and cripples the average with debt. Solutions? ...make more money...move to the country...stop allowing 3rd world religious scroungers in to live off British taxpayers. Also do degrees/learn skills that allow you to make or do things that people actually need. Create products, create wealth, employ other British people and elect governments that give a shit about Britain as a country.
