The Essay
This essay will analyse the ideas of sustainability, within the original scheme whilst comparing and contrasting with the redevelopment by Urban Splash.
Park Hill flat’s was a project developed in Sheffield, built in a slum site post world war two. The project planned to solve the need for council houses in the densely populated city centre whilst reinforcing community and open space, with its courtyards and shops.
The design was started in 1945 by Jack Lynn, Lewis Womersley and Ivor Smith and was influenced with the modernist thinking of “streets in the sky” from the Smithson’s Golden Lane Housing plan and Le Corbusier’s Unite d’habitation.
Finished in 1961, the flats started as a success, but during the 70’s, a deterioration in the concrete and safety began and by the 80’s it had become dilapidated, “a place for dumping problem families” ( Healthcote, 2012, 33).
In the hope of finding developers, Sheffield City Council made it a grade 2 listed building in 1998, the largest in Europe.
Urban Splash are now working towards the renovation claiming “getting rid of it is not a 'sustainable' solution” (UrbanSplash, 2011) but plan to create luxury flats and ”soften its brutality without softening its character” (UrbanSplash, 2011)
Park Hill has shown different methods of sustainability through the ages, whilst maintaining the values of a modern; eco-social design.
Through the in-depth analysis within, we invite you to make your own judgement on Park Hill whilst posing that the original and redevelopment schemes may not be so different..
Names: Samuel Holden, Simon Mitchell, Sotiris Skaros, Zhor Boukerrou
Park Hill flat’s was a project developed in Sheffield, built in a slum site post world war two. The project planned to solve the need for council houses in the densely populated city centre whilst reinforcing community and open space, with its courtyards and shops.
The design was started in 1945 by Jack Lynn, Lewis Womersley and Ivor Smith and was influenced with the modernist thinking of “streets in the sky” from the Smithson’s Golden Lane Housing plan and Le Corbusier’s Unite d’habitation.
Finished in 1961, the flats started as a success, but during the 70’s, a deterioration in the concrete and safety began and by the 80’s it had become dilapidated, “a place for dumping problem families” ( Healthcote, 2012, 33).
In the hope of finding developers, Sheffield City Council made it a grade 2 listed building in 1998, the largest in Europe.
Urban Splash are now working towards the renovation claiming “getting rid of it is not a 'sustainable' solution” (UrbanSplash, 2011) but plan to create luxury flats and ”soften its brutality without softening its character” (UrbanSplash, 2011)
Park Hill has shown different methods of sustainability through the ages, whilst maintaining the values of a modern; eco-social design.
Through the in-depth analysis within, we invite you to make your own judgement on Park Hill whilst posing that the original and redevelopment schemes may not be so different..
Names: Samuel Holden, Simon Mitchell, Sotiris Skaros, Zhor Boukerrou