Robin Hood Gardens slated for Demolition

London: Robin Hood Gardens

Four years ago Gordon Brown wants to demolish Robin Hood Gardens – the brutalist council housing designed by Alison and Peter Smithson. Even a successful design competition could not spare its fate. Londonist updates us on the status of Robin Hood Gardens:

Opened in 1972, the estate, formed of two long concrete blocks designed by husband and wife team Alison and Peter Smithson (also responsible for the Economist building in Piccadilly) had become a cause célèbre in recent years, ever since tearing it down was first proposed in 2008. Architects Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers, and former Guardian architecture critic Jonathan Glancey, joined a campaign by Building Design magazine to save the estate, and it was the subject of an exhibition. However, the decision not to award it listed status sounded the death knell.

Robin Hood Gardens social housing

Soon we will only have a Flickr set of photos to remember this strange, and alienating building.

Robin Hood Gardens

Robin Hood Gardens Design Competition Results Announced

Robin Hood 05.jpgRobin Hood 05.jpg, originally uploaded by joseph beuys hat

The top entries in BD and the Architecture Foundation’s ideas competition for Robin Hood Gardens show that inspired refurbishment of the estate can give it a new vibrancy while reaching the required density levels.

Check out Zoran Radivojevic’s design for Robin Hood Gardens in depth and the rest of the competition finalists and an interesting proposal from Super Spatial involving kinetic parasitic structures.
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