The Regeneration
Inside the redeveloped flats
Urban Splash is a company dedicated to the rejuvenation of dilapidated northern buildings. When they took over, their ethos of re-use was at the forefront of the design, although with a grade 2 building that is usually the only option. Keeping the concrete frame, the parts that were in great disrepair were crushed and used as paving.
When park hill was first built, they destroyed the old slums, but by keeping the street names they have therefore sustained the culture of the area. Now by retailing to professionals, Urban Splash are now destroying this community.
Does this new redevelopment fulfil the concept of the original – no, not fully anyway, it is no longer council housing and is now catered towards young professionals, however by maintaining the original design the streets in the sky vision can still be achieved and some houses can be bought at half price with the governments shared ownership scheme.
It could be argued that proper maintenance of Park Hill could of stopped dilapidation from the start, however since the 1950’s, conservative governments have moved to keep council estates out of the city centre and at the time of creation of Park Hill, and the times of its major decline, the Conservatives were in power suggesting a lack of funding.
The housing act of 1980 allowed the right to buy, creating further problems and a major breakdown in the eco-social nature of flats, as it now meant there was a divide between those who could afford a house and those who couldn’t.
The Barbican council estate was built at a similar time to Park Hill, a brutalist piece and an area also devastated by World War II. It is still in use today, even though it is still in the city centre which Tory governments would disapprove of. We believe it was a success due to the input of local government funding, which Sheffield could not offer to Park Hill, which is brought about from the even greater need in central London for unskilled workers.
Creating high density social housing close to the city centre also meant the poor occupants wouldn’t need to pay extra on travel costs but could walk. This in turn reduced greenhouse emissions; however environmental awareness probably wasn’t the original priority.
So it doesn’t solve the amount of people still on the council house waiting list but isn’t this better than having them demolished?
In the 1960 when the building was built it was designed to the theory of Le Corbusier’s- “streets in the sky” which meant that communities were housed in one complete building. However, a lot has changed since the 1960s making people reluctant to live in such places due to the social degradation and the so called break down of society, resulting in privatisation.
The concept proposed by Urban Splash was to re-create a successful neighbourhood and to rejuvenate the older values of the post war era. Given the area that Park Hill is in, the people of Urban Splash viewed every perspective and tried to make it sympathetic with the city. This is a long term project, which will be split into several stages; the main element of the project is to retain the skeleton of the structure. Sheffield city council had quite a dilemma on whether to maintain or demolish this concrete framework. Due to the building being historically important as it was one of the first schemes of post war Britain, and as such was a grade II listed building, not much could be changed anyway.
Based on the reaction of the people, Urban Splash reinvented the idea of “streets in the sky”, and bought the scheme to make private housing apartments. With the redevelopment of the £160 million structure, bricks were knocked out of there concrete frame and were replaced with coloured panels to show that the area was being reborn. Some internal walls were also taken out and were crushed and used for footpaths.
The idea is to strengthen the connection of city living and urban living to make one seamless way of life, Urban Splash have created routes and an amphitheatre that connects to the train station. Corridors will be narrow and further privatisation is achieved through a now gated estate and the doors will be grouped in fours, creating a semi-social lobby. In our opinion, this is a good way of keeping Le Corbusier’s theory by choosing to socialise with the neighbours whilst to isolating yourself from others. However It is also breaks down the chance of meeting with new people every day as it was with the “streets in the sky”, but by just knowing your neighbours gives a more controlled, privatised environment.
The grade II building has either one or two bedroom apartments, and restricts the saleability of the buildings to professional people and rich students who work in the city and also like the idea of 21st century “trendy” living.
Looking back to yesteryear you can see that Park Hill was built to sustain the idea of family living and a sense of community involvement which is the opposite of today’s world. Families tend to live on the outskirts of the cities as it a more peaceful, safe and sustainable, in the sense of a cultural area to live in.
When park hill was first built, they destroyed the old slums, but by keeping the street names they have therefore sustained the culture of the area. Now by retailing to professionals, Urban Splash are now destroying this community.
Does this new redevelopment fulfil the concept of the original – no, not fully anyway, it is no longer council housing and is now catered towards young professionals, however by maintaining the original design the streets in the sky vision can still be achieved and some houses can be bought at half price with the governments shared ownership scheme.
It could be argued that proper maintenance of Park Hill could of stopped dilapidation from the start, however since the 1950’s, conservative governments have moved to keep council estates out of the city centre and at the time of creation of Park Hill, and the times of its major decline, the Conservatives were in power suggesting a lack of funding.
The housing act of 1980 allowed the right to buy, creating further problems and a major breakdown in the eco-social nature of flats, as it now meant there was a divide between those who could afford a house and those who couldn’t.
The Barbican council estate was built at a similar time to Park Hill, a brutalist piece and an area also devastated by World War II. It is still in use today, even though it is still in the city centre which Tory governments would disapprove of. We believe it was a success due to the input of local government funding, which Sheffield could not offer to Park Hill, which is brought about from the even greater need in central London for unskilled workers.
Creating high density social housing close to the city centre also meant the poor occupants wouldn’t need to pay extra on travel costs but could walk. This in turn reduced greenhouse emissions; however environmental awareness probably wasn’t the original priority.
So it doesn’t solve the amount of people still on the council house waiting list but isn’t this better than having them demolished?
In the 1960 when the building was built it was designed to the theory of Le Corbusier’s- “streets in the sky” which meant that communities were housed in one complete building. However, a lot has changed since the 1960s making people reluctant to live in such places due to the social degradation and the so called break down of society, resulting in privatisation.
The concept proposed by Urban Splash was to re-create a successful neighbourhood and to rejuvenate the older values of the post war era. Given the area that Park Hill is in, the people of Urban Splash viewed every perspective and tried to make it sympathetic with the city. This is a long term project, which will be split into several stages; the main element of the project is to retain the skeleton of the structure. Sheffield city council had quite a dilemma on whether to maintain or demolish this concrete framework. Due to the building being historically important as it was one of the first schemes of post war Britain, and as such was a grade II listed building, not much could be changed anyway.
Based on the reaction of the people, Urban Splash reinvented the idea of “streets in the sky”, and bought the scheme to make private housing apartments. With the redevelopment of the £160 million structure, bricks were knocked out of there concrete frame and were replaced with coloured panels to show that the area was being reborn. Some internal walls were also taken out and were crushed and used for footpaths.
The idea is to strengthen the connection of city living and urban living to make one seamless way of life, Urban Splash have created routes and an amphitheatre that connects to the train station. Corridors will be narrow and further privatisation is achieved through a now gated estate and the doors will be grouped in fours, creating a semi-social lobby. In our opinion, this is a good way of keeping Le Corbusier’s theory by choosing to socialise with the neighbours whilst to isolating yourself from others. However It is also breaks down the chance of meeting with new people every day as it was with the “streets in the sky”, but by just knowing your neighbours gives a more controlled, privatised environment.
The grade II building has either one or two bedroom apartments, and restricts the saleability of the buildings to professional people and rich students who work in the city and also like the idea of 21st century “trendy” living.
Looking back to yesteryear you can see that Park Hill was built to sustain the idea of family living and a sense of community involvement which is the opposite of today’s world. Families tend to live on the outskirts of the cities as it a more peaceful, safe and sustainable, in the sense of a cultural area to live in.