in a similar vein, this wonderful thing in bloomsbury
which i had always thought was originally a swimming pool, but was apparently a garage when it was built in 1931...is a v good spot there- senate house at one end, the brunswick centre at the other, the brutalist Unison building, british library and st pancras round the corner.
which i had always thought was originally a swimming pool, but was apparently a garage when it was built in 1931...is a v good spot there- senate house at one end, the brunswick centre at the other, the brutalist Unison building, british library and st pancras round the corner.
hmg
Victory lap
owen said:mainly by the very wealthy. the very similar (styllistically speaking) thamesmead development
is considered a failure, and is inhabited by the very poor. the alienation 'caused' by these structures depends i think on the alienation the inhabitants already feel. but the 'social dynamics' are horribly complicated. the brutalists (smithsons etc) thought that their streets in the sky would be more attentive to the social needs of their working class inhabitants than the le corbusier inspired 'radiant cities' (eg alton estate in roehampton, with its masses of green space, its lack of a centre) and are now equally derided.
Absolutely fascinating post. Have you got any recommended books on the subject for me? I've got a summer's worth of lunchbreaks in which to get some quality reading done . . .
As for Thamesmead, it makes my heart glad to see it floating to the surface again. I spent a month there a few years ago and looking back on it now feels like a strange dream . . . Black & white television . . . reading Cities of the Red Night for the first time . . . a LIDL full of incomprehensible foodstuffs . . . a pony sticking its head out at me from behind a fence . . . some strange misty field—like a patch of ground for which no one had decided on a purpose—where there was a carboot sale and I nearly bought a pair of socks . . . the smashed up factory near the station . . . all the sharp, lurky angles of the estate . . . and also the feeling that the marshland was winning.
I bet it's terrible in winter though. This was a summer and the weather was just perfect.
i went there in december and it was lovely- very wintry. in the rain i imagine it'd be grim as all hell though. anyway, for stuff to read- the pdf i link to here http://nastybrutalistandshort.blogspot.com/2006/04/old-ultraviolence.html
is interesting, as is the book 'back to the future- a social history of thamesmead', if you can find it.
is interesting, as is the book 'back to the future- a social history of thamesmead', if you can find it.
O
Omaar
Guest
owen said:in a similar vein, this wonderful thing in bloomsbury
which i had always thought was originally a swimming pool, but was apparently a garage when it was built in 1931...is a v good spot there- senate house at one end, the brunswick centre at the other, the brutalist Unison building, british library and st pancras round the corner.
Ha, I've been meaning to pop up and snap a picture of this place since a friend showed it to me, for the purpose of posting it on this thread. I'd heard it was a car park building , hence the sloping floors of the spiralling ramp system on the right. Must be dizzying working in there.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Horribly complicated is the thing, and personally, I'm not entirely sure what the questions are let alone the answers. Certainly, a lot of modernist social housing was planned based on a certain assumption of how people would behave in a given environment which turned out to be optimistic. As you say, there's a fairly obvious class issue, compounded by (but not reducible to) the fact that rich people are more likely to be willing and able to pay for security, cleaners, effective lighting, lift repairs and so on.owen said:
Your point about alienation is spot on, but I've heard repeatedly (no authoritative research to hand, though) that there was a greater feeling of community in the old slummy terraces than in tower blocks and similar housing schemes - possibly this is just because the very act of moving people into tower blocks broke up the existing community, possibly there are other reasons. In any case, this is the sort of thing that I was wondering whether anyone has addressed.
Another point that I was rather conflating with this is that, from my limited understanding, the functionalist conception of what the function of a house was ignored people's territorial instinct to 'make their home their own' by - often - filling it with crap, or putting in random furniture, or otherwise messing with the pure minimalist aesthetic. I might be way off here, but that would at least suggest why modernism / minimalism / functionalism / brutalism have been so much more influential in designing public and corporate spaces, where individual territory is less of an issue...
Well, I've seen some very nice modernist (afaict) stuff that mixes brick and wood and glass in with the concrete - I'm not sure how strictly that adheres to truth to materials, though.
Yeah, exactly. But pragmatically, are there features that can be incorporated into the design that minimize the effect of chronic underfunding? Although I guess your point
is pretty much it.
luka said:
i went to a corporate event in that place once when the company i worked for at the time ws taken over, the party was on the theme of 'eyes wide shut' which had recently been released but without the sex etc, i snuck away and explored some of the out of bounds bits that were'nt locked .. lots of regalia, they had to mock up a ladies toilet for the event which was quite amusing.
luka
Well-known member
loads of times i've walked past this place in bethnal green with people and said, oi look at that and they, uh,so what so i'm pleased to see the building has pedigree
http://www.sublimephotography.co.uk/guest/pages/frankle.htm
http://www.sublimephotography.co.uk/guest/pages/frankle.htm
luka
Well-known member
church of the suicidal christ in limehouse
http://www.sublimephotography.co.uk/eastendphotos/limehouse/pages/ourlady.htm
http://www.sublimephotography.co.uk/eastendphotos/limehouse/pages/ourlady.htm
luka
Well-known member
luka
Well-known member
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...r+bloomsbury&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N
this is my favourite steeple
this is my favourite steeple
luka
Well-known member
luka said:
background information'
'For retail early-1900s style, travel down to Whitechapel and you can see the curiosity of Wickham’s department store. It was the grandest store in the East End until it closed in 1969. But look again and you see Wickham’s was built in two halves, with a small shop in the middle. The little shop had been on the site since Mr Spiegelhalter had travelled from Germany in 1820 to set up his watchmaker business in Whitechapel. In 1927, the increasingly successful Wickhams wanted to expand, but the Spiegelhalter family stubbornly refused to sell out. The solution? Wickham’s had to build their new monolith in two parts – with the jewellers in the middle.'
look at the premises between the DIY store and Blockbusters. quality!
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luka
Well-known member
IdleRich
IdleRich
Oh yeah, that's really cool. I used to live near there and I never ever noticed that. I reckon I walk by things like that all the time without taking it in. I've really enjoyed looking at this thread and I think it makes me look around me more when I'm walking through the city.