England | ROBIN HOOD GARDENS

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Council urges Follett to allow demolition of Robin Hood Gardens

23 January 2009


By Liz Bury



EH stands firm in opposing listing despite 20th Century Society report

Tower Hamlets Council this week urged the government to “put people before buildings” as it made a final pitch to architecture minister Barbara Follett to allow the demolition of Robin Hood Gardens.
Despite the huge impact of BD’s Rescue Robin Hood Gardens campaign which won support from 2,000 readers and an expert appeal made by the Twentieth Century Society, it emerged this week that English Heritage had refused to alter its opposition to listing.
This prompted the issuing of a provocative statement just hours later by council leader and Labour group member Lutfur Rahman, who welcomed EH’s position and called on Follett to follow suit.
“Whatever the questionable architectural merits of the present buildings, the living standards for thousands of residents in one of the poorest parts of London must come first,” he said.
Rahman’s views were echoed by Tim Archer, Conservative councillor for Tower Hamlets. “The stairwells are depressing spaces, as are the lifts, and the landing spaces; and that great mound in the middle is a waste of space. It’s a wind trap. It’s screaming to be knocked down,” Archer said.
But supporters refused to admit defeat, including the Twentieth Century Society which submitted detailed evidence from chairman Alan Powers, housing expert Dickon Robinson, Robin Hood Gardens architect Kenneth Baker and architects including Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid and Peter St John.
“EH hasn’t changed its mind. DCMS will have to change it for them,” Powers told BD.

He added that the debate has crystallised the difference between an architect’s way of seeing and that of a non-architect.
“EH is exercising a non-architect’s way of seeing,” he said. “It’s a building of many moods. It changes in different lights and weather, and depending on where you stand. It has a wide emotional range — it’s as though modern architecture is not allowed that depth.”
The Twentieth Century Society also vowed to carry out a forensic analysis of the EH response and how this relates to listing criteria.
EH’s response to the appeal conceded that the estate had some design merit, but dismissed the majority of the claims to special architectural interest.
EH head of designation Roger Bowdler singled out “the creation of a quiet space within this traffic-bound site” as “an acoustic achievement of some order”.
But he was scathing about the stairs as “the grimmest element of the blocks”, and described the estate as “oppressive”. He wrote: “The heroic scale aspired to by the designers can also be seen as an inhuman, overbearing one.”
Follett is to make a decision within weeks of the February 5 deadline for responses, although this date may again be pushed back.

Fonte: WorldArchitectureNews