“Brutalism as Found. Housing, Form, and Crisis at Robin Hood Gardens” (Nicholas Thoburn, Goldsmiths Press, 2022) deals with the controversial case of the social housing complex realized by the Brutalist architects Alison and Peter Smithson in 1972. Located in Poplar, East London, close to Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs, the residential estate was composed by 214 maisonettes and single-storey flats in two long curved slab-blocks: both buildings were facing each other and bent at plan following the course of the surrounding roads. Between the two blocks, a multi-level garden emphasized the role of the semi-public space with no parking lots or road traffic. In the twilight of the welfare policies implemented after the Second World War and on the heels of the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent recession, this architecture by the leader of Team 10 is not only their first opportunity to create a council estate (i.e., built by the Greater London Council), but also their only mass-housing scheme. Robin Hood Gardens represents one of the emblematic experiments of the so-called Second Modern, engaged in the attempt to overcome the design rigidity of the Modern Movement.
A Waste of Many Things. The Demolition of the Brutalist Robin Hood Gardens
moretti, b.
2024-01-01
Abstract
“Brutalism as Found. Housing, Form, and Crisis at Robin Hood Gardens” (Nicholas Thoburn, Goldsmiths Press, 2022) deals with the controversial case of the social housing complex realized by the Brutalist architects Alison and Peter Smithson in 1972. Located in Poplar, East London, close to Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs, the residential estate was composed by 214 maisonettes and single-storey flats in two long curved slab-blocks: both buildings were facing each other and bent at plan following the course of the surrounding roads. Between the two blocks, a multi-level garden emphasized the role of the semi-public space with no parking lots or road traffic. In the twilight of the welfare policies implemented after the Second World War and on the heels of the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent recession, this architecture by the leader of Team 10 is not only their first opportunity to create a council estate (i.e., built by the Greater London Council), but also their only mass-housing scheme. Robin Hood Gardens represents one of the emblematic experiments of the so-called Second Modern, engaged in the attempt to overcome the design rigidity of the Modern Movement.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
