[Closed] Elfin's Tuesday A+A= Architectural Appreciation! This week- Housing.

This is a local apartment block here in Darmstadt.

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Wow! 🙂

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Trellick Tower. Best described as a captivating monstrosity. It is ghastly on many levels, but somehow wonderous to look at too. A right old enigma

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High & Over - the first modernist house in the UK. 1930ish IIRC.

Here's my old tower block Fred. Grim aren't they.

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I remember sitting in the kitchen window at night watching the police chases round the precinct. It was very educational. Did you know, for example, that a Renault 5 GT Turbo will fit through a subway entrance but a police Sierra Cosworth won't?

When it comes to where I'd love to live. Anything Art Deco inspired is fine by me

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I particularly like the use of colours and modern building materials. It’s also nice to see the use of outdoor living space and a concession for bicycle parking:

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Cheesy; I've got the sister building to Trellick just yards from me, Balfron Tower. Nasty 'orrible thing. A proper carbuncle.

Of course, the lack of availability of space in a city like London means that dense residency housing must be carefully thought out, and the needs of the dwellers carefully considered. sadly, this is all too rare, as architects themselves will never live in such places. Le Corbusier had visions of huge great monolithic structures under his Unité d'Habitation concept, but the bugger never had to bloody live on a council estate, did he? Granted, the socio-economic problems suffered by many residents of such places don't help, but they are further exacerbated by the brutality of the architecture which is often totally unsympathetic to Humanity, quite frankly.

Robin Hood Gardens; load of fuss kicked up by a bunch of Middle Class do-gooders wanting to preserve such an 'excellent example of Modernist architecture'. Ponces. They don't have to live in the crumbling, sub-standard shoddily built behemoth, do they? One resident offered to swap his flat for the home of one of the campaigners. With predictable response.
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Trellick Tower? I think Mick Jones used to live there..

This in San Francisco.

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No one mentioned the Byker Wall yet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byker_Wall

Leith's very own Banana Flats

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Bit of a juxtaposition of the shore 200m away

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this place was nice to live in

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as was this

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Helps if people mention where the places are, or the names of the buildings. Makes research easier. 🙂

Oh, and try to avoid posting massive pics, thousands by thousands of pixels, as they take longer to load and slow the thread down. Ta.

[i]Knew[/i] Binners was Council Estate Scum.... 😉

How about Le Corbusier's Unite D'Habitation - the one that kicked it all off.

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Or on something of a different tack - Ken Shuttleworth's Crescent House, which I have been studying recently. It's sort of interesting, but probably a bit crap to live in;

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[img] http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/images/l/1052293/ [/img]

Gorbals, Glasgow.

As happened elsewhere the tower blocks didn't quite live up to the architects intended vision...

[url= http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/70581/details/glasgow+hutchesontown+gorbals/ ]more pictures and information here[/url]

OK the picture I posted is of the [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldspirale ]waldspirale[/url]. It is owned and run by the German equivalent of a housing association, which just shows that social housing doesn't have to mean social deprivation.

Think Binners' pic of the towers was of some of the Halls for Salford Uni? Certainly looked like the place I stayed in at least.

This was on Grand designs, perfect in every way IMO:

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The Vele of Scampia
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[url= http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/naples/vele.htm ]Bit of background here[/url]

warton +1

portlyone - It is indeed John Lester Court.

Here's the infamous Crescents in Hulme, just down the road from me

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At least Manchester City Council had the good sense not to tinker around the edges. They levelled the whole place and started from scratch again. Its transformed the area to the extent that it now has a huge metropolitan gay population, affectionately referred too as Hulme-osexuals

This is starting to become a more of a "Elfin's Tuesday A+A= Housing policy Appreciation - or lack of!" thing. Come on Fred! Get us back on track. Inspire me! 😀

EDIT: and this is my final moan. About middle class do-gooders. This monstrosity:

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is a listed building. Go figure! Yet they were happily able to demolish this:

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straightforward cultural vandalism IMHO. Notonly was it of huge cultural significance, but a lovely building. And it was interesting historically as it was built as a yacht warehouse. A yacht warehouse? In the city centre of Manchester.

All to build yet more flats. Yip. We're short of a few of those in town

🙄

the lovely city of Portsmouth again. Last week I posted the Tricorn Centre, an interesting building, which they decided was "ugly" and flattened. However any visitor to Portsmouth is greeted by a half mile row of this:
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"How can we make the Estella Street flats look nice?"
"Paint the balconies orange?"
"Great!"

I really, really can't stand Hundertwasser, but this:

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Philip Johnson, New Canaan 1949
or this:

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Stephen Holl, Y-House, 2000
or this:

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Frank Gehry, Venice Beach House, 1986
are more like it for me.
Not forgetting:

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Pierre Koenig, Case Study House 21, 1956-58

That detail of the concrete support in debaser's pic (great link btw) sort of sums up why Brutalism, whilst perhaps not being the best design solution for housing, certainly does merit appreciation for it's immense solidity and illusion of strength and power. I can see why it was so popular in Eastern Yerp and the USSR.

Thing about 60s/70s council estates as pictured here, is that whilst they can often be nasty, frightening places harbouring decay, deprivation, fear and despair, there is something almost sexy about them. Dunno, maybe that's just some sub-concious association of mine perhaps, based on my own experience of such places. but they're a hell of a lot more exciting and adrenalising than some naff soulless Barrat cul-de-sac, you know? Hmm. Would be interested to hear others' views on this.

The Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury has gone through periods of change, but I kind of like the overall concept. Certainly, efforts were made to try to bring about some sense of community, maybe society just wasn't ready for it. And it's a bit hemmed in I spose. But shops, a library and cinema (albeit a bit of a 'high-brow' joint) incorporated into a housing complex? That's quite nice I think. It's just a pity that the architects forgot to give people who actually lived there any real space; the flats are still quite 'compact', and you're very cheek-by-jowl with your neighbours, when you might not really want to be. But as an exercise in cramming everything into a small space, it's reasonably successful given that such concepts were very new and experimental back when it was designed and built, certainly in the UK, where conservatism really was the bane of many an enthusiastic aspiring young architect.

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Going off the housing thing, but I like this:

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Wythenshawe Park Pavillion. I imagine it looked great when it was built. Still could

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This is a new estate in Milton Keynes...the guy opposite me lives here, its a totally characterless place that to me looks like something we draw on Google sketch up at work and has some how been dragged off the drawing board and developed...bloody awful IMO

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Salford?

hulme was trully shocking ans the knocked dwon the Hacienda that is proper cultural vandalism of the highest order.
Many ha[ppy nights spent there and that curved corner was beautiful especially the blind spot from the cameras and the bouncers
Scottish council estate/tenament scum here. [img] [/img]

Junkyard.

Those houses in that pic are pretty standard stuff. I travel a lot around the UK and they are everywhere. Must have come in kit form.

something a bit more positive then... interesting:
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Yakisugi House by Terunobu Fujimori

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The Toilet House by Sim Jae-duck

This is starting to become a more of a "Elfin's Tuesday A+A= Housing policy Appreciation - or lack of!" thing. Come on Fred! Get us back on track. Inspire me!

Sorry! 😳 I do get a bit carried away when it comes to nasty 'orrible council estates. Thing is, they do excite me somewhat, and I've lived on the bloody things for most of my life.

EDIT: and this is my final moan. About middle class do-gooders. This monstrosity is a listed building. Go figure! Yet they were happily able to demolish this:

I feel you pain. The same thing has happened here. Loads of old brick dock buildings and streets of houses were torn down, and replaced with concrete boxes. Which are now being torn down. 😕

"How can we make the Estella Street flats look nice?"
"Paint the balconies orange?"
"Great!"

They've done a fair bit of 'cosmetic enhancement' to buildings here. Painted the outsides of them, yet the same problems exist inside. Spose it brightens up the place a bit though, many estates seemed to improve greatly during the last government. I expect to see a gradual decline once more now though.

I really, really can't stand Hundertwasser

That's because you're an architect, and only like to draw straight lines and perpendicular corners on things. Why is it that architects design the most spectacularly boring homes for themselves??

I do like Falling Water though, I must say.

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Why hasnt this been posted yet?

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Damn didnt refresh thread..

where is that falling water house?

I find this place interesting - Chimney Pot Park in Salford

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I don't particularly like fallingwater its a bit medallion man type house, I expect its all carpeted walls and waterbeds inside. It neither fits in with its surroundings or contrasts with them, its just rather dull and of its time.

Ms Pendleton, just for TJ.

I'd have gladly laid her foundations 8)

[img] http://www.londonfgss.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10465 [/img]

EDIT - sorry RB but you're guilty by association, your current persona doesn't fool me laddy

I used to live in Keeling House! In about 2002 I think after it had been refurbished. Quite nice building but we'd still get mugged for our mobile phones in the surrounding streets.

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My in-law's house:

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thing is, are council tower blocks grim, or do the people who live in them make them such? I can't see much in the way of improvement by shipping everyone out to a big out-of-town estate..

[url= http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/2604071142_3bc61b7830.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/2604071142_3bc61b7830.jp g"/> [/img]

I'm lucky enough to live near this house.

I have always liked the lotte glob house.
Outside
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Inside
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I also quite like the longhouse designs on skye.

DezB, there is some great riding behidn there in bucklands. Loads of little alleyways and catwalks you can ride up and around at night. The fact its a rough area just makes it all the more fun.

[url= http://www.harbourside.co.uk/HomesforSale/tabid/80/Default.aspx ]how about harbourside living in bristol[/url]

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opps
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thing is, are council tower blocks grim, or do the people who live in them make them such?

Bit of both. they tend to start off nice, but lack of maintenance and general neglect sees them becoming run down quite quickly. Add to that poor build quality and materials, and they can be shabby, depressing places to live in. Most residents tend to be decent people, ime, but a few can ruin it for everyone else. When you live in a place which is neglected and ignored, you tend not to care too much about it, speshly if you feel that others tend not to care too much about you.

Tower blocks isolate and alienate people from one another. There is little social interaction, and little trust and respect between people who don't get to know each other much. There's none of the leaning on the garden fence chatting to each other, of course.

Tower blocks suit young mainly single people and studenty types who will only live there a short time and just need a place to sleep at night mostly. They aren't suitable for families, the elderly, the disabled or those with mental health issues.

I don't particularly like fallingwater its a bit medallion man type house, I expect its all carpeted walls and waterbeds inside. It neither fits in with its surroundings or contrasts with them, its just rather dull and of its time.

I disagree. I think although it contrasts with it's surroundings, it works really well as a house, and it's interior is far from how you'd imagine:

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Red road Flats. Due for Demolition. They seem to have the most Homely Community centre ever. Its not new, its not fancy, but its working! The asylum community is actually pretty strong and tight knit too. As usual you only get out what you put in. (Note the carry outs!)

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These are the Ravenscraig Flats in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

They were built to house retired people, so there was no vandalism, they were built in the sixties and still wearing well.

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good thread 🙂

Time for a little contrast I think:

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A quietly understated country pied-a-terre: Biddestone Manor, Wiltshire. Sadly, not mine.

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Not a fishing village, Castle Combe in Wiltshire, not far from Biddestone. These houses seem to keep being re-invented as coastal; they were a fishing village in Dr. Dolittle, and here they're a Devon or Dorset fishing village in Steven Spielberg's new movie, Warhorse.

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Still in the same area, a 17th Century farmhouse, now a hotel/restaurant/tearoom.
Fosse Farmhouse, Nettleton.
All very typical of South Cotswold architecture

This one's a bit mental:

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Teletubbies meets Gaudi! Dunno if it's actually inhabited, but it's certainly unique.

A very interesting/revealing thread.
Keep it up elfin.

Really enjoying the architectural appreciation threads Elfin, both this one and the last. Keep it up!
but easy on the architect bashing fella, yeah i'm an architect and feeling a little sensitive 🙂 I felt I wanted to offer a counter to a couple of your statements.

"the needs of the dwellers carefully considered. sadly, this is all too rare, as architects themselves will never live in such places"
not strictly true, at my last practice in Manchester my colleagues and friends lived across the complete housing spectrum, From low rise council flats, High rise council towers, shared terraced housing, new noddy box flats, conversions etc... All sorts! not all architects ponce about in black polo necks 🙂

"It's just a pity that the architects forgot to give people who actually lived there any real space"
Whilst I agree that most modern flats are woefully small, I believe this is because of the clients/contractors/developers who are there trying to make their money, smaller the unit the more they can shoe horn in and sell. The architects don't get a whole lot of say on the actual size as they're not paying for the development.

It's disappointing as having such cramped new homes only encourage transient inhabitants, move in put up with the tinyness for a few years then move to the suburbs for space - it wont allow for a sustainable community of families, as you've rightly critiqued about the tower blocks.

Anyway mini-rant over and feeling better, Please do keep up the good work and i'll look forward to your next Arch-Apreciation thread.

Here's my contribution, an area of regenerated dockland in Amsterdam where many architects where invited to 'do' a block each, the only planning restrictions being it had to fit on the plot and not exceed a specific height. It's really eclectic and I think its great.

Borneo, Amsterdam
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I don't particularly like fallingwater its a bit medallion man type house, I expect its all carpeted walls and waterbeds inside. It neither fits in with its surroundings or contrasts with them, its just rather dull and of its time.

I disagree. I think although it contrasts with it's surroundings, it works really well as a house, and it's interior is far from how you'd imagine:

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I think that actually confirms my point, dark wood, artificial light, brown table cloth and beige plates and a picture of a posed man smoking a pipe wearing a tank top. Its the look every chest wig wearing man would have loved to re-create in the 70's.

I love the Borneo Sporenburg project in Amsterdam as well.

Love Borneo. Looks very similar to Tuttu Frutti. And in a way reminds me of some of the ideas behind the Royal Crescent in Bath.

Here's a picture of my son Alfs on a recent trip up to London. He's standing in front of Charles Rowan House (London WC1) where he was born in a basement flat 12 1/2 years ago. It was built in the late 1920s to house married police officers and their families and is rumoured to be the first flat block in the UK built with flushing toilets and plumbed in bathrooms in each apartment. It was fairly run down and housed several crack dens in the early 1990s but is now a mix of private homes and council owned properties. (There's a similar building down near the South Bank but they lopped the top off and visually ruined it a few decades ago). Worth having a wander through the courtyard if you're in that neck of the woods and like architecture.

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I am trying to convince someone that buying this would be good...
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[i]dark wood, artificial light, brown table cloth and beige plates and a picture of a posed man smoking a pipe wearing a tank top.[/i]
😆
All the things I look for when choosing a house

Pfft. All Falling Water needs is a bit of carpet/wood floor, and some lighter wood details. Dunno where you're getting the medallion man thing from; I'd imagine such a person would prefer a big Hollywood style mansion.

but easy on the architect bashing fella, yeah i'm an architect and feeling a little sensitive I felt I wanted to offer a counter to a couple of your statements.

Heh! Not all architects are gits, just quite a lot of them...

I used to live next to the Ranwell East estate in Bow, East London. An architect's vision of the future; lots of 4-6 storey blocks, connected by walkways which allowed people to walk from one end of the estate to the other, without needing to go down to ground level. Wonderful. Allowed burglars, muggers and junkies unprecedented access to a maze of corridors and stairwells, and made any pursuit by police virtually impossible.

The main mistakes made were putting far too many people in too small a space. Not necessarily the architects' fault, I agree. Just pisses me off when they bang on about 'visionary' and 'ground-breaking' architecture, without having a clue about the real needs of the end users. Lessons have bin learned, and new social housing developments tend to be lower level and with more space. This is proven to be a more socially successful model of housing. Ah well, at least ideas were tried. The Barbican in the City is a very des res location, and some of the flats there are lovely. The main difference is, that it's not full of scum like me and Binners, mind. But it's still not an ideal development for families really. It's too closed in, too cramped, too claustrophobic.

Borneo, Amsterdam

Sorry, but that just looks a bit of a mess, to me. Just a load of rectangles, with some sticky-out bits. I can't see how it differs from any other dense terracing. I prefer a nice Victorian terrace where the owners have painted or modified their own houses to be a bit different. I'm sure a lot of self-congratulatory back-slapping went on with the Borneo project, but I fail to see how it's in any way special or unique. It's just a row of boxes. Sorry, but I'll say it as I see it. The traditional centre of Amsterdam is far more aesthetically pleasing.

It's really eclectic and I think its great.

You would. You're an architect. You have an aversion to curves... 😉

I am trying to convince someone that buying this would be good...

On that evidence alone, I too would have to oppose such a move.

Even in Tokyon, a place famed for lack of space and incredibly high land values, someone's managed to make something that looks unique, inviting and fun.

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Might be crap to live in, I dunno, but at least it looks cheery.

If you like Falling Water you could always invest in your own version. Not sure if wearing a medallion is obligatory 🙂
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