HOUSING ESTATES
Just been reading this book.
Some good quotes from an article in "The Guardian" in January 2007
"Council estates are nothing to be scared of, unless you are frightened of inequality. They are a physical reminder that we live in a society that divides people according to how much money they have to spend on shelter."
Play word association with the term "council estates".
"Only the rich, it seems, are permitted to nibble away at the green belt, with land greedy 'executive estates': ghettoes for those who can choose which ghetto they want to live in."
More to come soon on these and other topics...
CUTTESLOWE WALLS
Details on Quality of Life of residents in housing estates
Work of Patrick Abercrombie and Ebenezer Howard
PARK HILL, Sheffield
A work in progress - more to come, including some images when I get a chance. Check out FLICKR for some already...
Completed in 1962 in the Modernist style (a similar style is known as Brutalist) - lots of concrete
Built on one of hills close to Sheffield city centre
13 floors high
Heated by an incinerator which burnt the residents' waste to generate heat and hot water
Decks and walkways wide enough for a milk-float to go down - pavements in the sky ?
40 000 jobs lost (in a city with a population of 200 000 through the late 1970s and early 1980s)
1000 flats, but residents were cut off from city centre by roads and steep hill which gave the flats their commanding view
Zig-zag shape - provided opportunities for muggers to escape
Aspirational tenants often moved out, to be replaced by more transient tenants
Became known as 'San Quentin' after the US jail
Suggestion that it would be turned into accommodation when Sheffield hosted the World Student Games
1998: Gained Grade II listed status from English Heritage
Urban Splash: property development company took over flats, which only house 1500 people
Suggested that around £30 000 would be needed to refurbish each flat and bring it up to habitable condition