However, these problems are hardly unique. Even when modernist designs are built exactly to the intended specifications, their subsequent failure is often blamed on non-architectural problems – e.g. poor maintenance, inadequate transport links, wider social issues. These can certainly play their part, but it all begins with the building.
Monolithic, system-built, unornamented architecture is inherently fragile – especially in application to social housing. The authorities and contractors have all the power, the residents none. Mistakes are systematically replicated across hundreds of dwellings – going unnoticed until it is too late.
Unlike most forms of traditional architecture, these are one-shot buildings – you have to get them right first time, because their scale, materials, method of construction and unity of design are all barriers to modification. The irony of ‘modernism’ as a label is that it is all about people from one point in history dictating to the future – imposing buildings that are almost impossible to adapt to changing needs. [...]
For the great majority of people, the traditional streetscape evolved and endured over millennia to maximise the connectivity of the shared urban environment – and also its security. As Jane Jacobs put it in the Life and Death of American Cities, there must be “eyes on the street… ” The tower in the park, however, not only removes the street, but lifts it residents high off the ground – their eyes are in the sky, looking into the distance, not where they need to be. Jacobs also said that there needs to be a “clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space.” The tower in the park erases that distinction, creating a no-man’s land which is neither public nor private and therefore insecure.
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