Quote:
Originally Posted by PA Pride
Ahhhh, this lovely little street has all the appeal of the death star exhaust port trench.
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Brutalism was always a controversial architectural style and opinion is often polarised when it comes to such buildings. Then again this is a Brutalist thread.
Many of the old British Brutalist buildings have now been either demolished or gentrified (as is the case in estates such as the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield).
http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/gallery/park-hill
Park Hill - Before
Park Hill after Urban Splash Refurbishment
Saxton Leeds before
http://www.urbansplash.co.uk/gallery/saxton
Saxton Leeds After
Some Brutalism such as the Alexandra Road Estate (Rowley Way) have been retained as an example of this architectural style.
As for Rowley Way, it was innovative architecture having being constructed on land near a major rail line (West Coast Main Line), with the shape of the street designed to cut out the noise of the nearby trains, as were the rubber pads on which the foundations rested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Road_Estate
"The desire to control the sound and vibration from passing trains was a major consideration in the layout of the estate. Two rows of terraced apartments are aligned along the tracks. The higher, 8-story block directly adjacent to the railway line is organised in the form a ziggurat, and acts as a noise barrier that blocks the noise of the trains from reaching the interior portion of the site, and its foundations rest on rubber pads that eliminate vibration. A lower, 4-story block runs along the other side of a continuous pedestrian walkway, known as Rowley Way, serving both terraced rows of buildings. The third row of buildings, along the southern edge of the site, parallels another public walkway, Langtry Walk, between this row and the existing earlier buildings of the Ainsworth Estate and defines a public park with play areas between the second and third row of dwellings.
The lower 4-storey building along Rowley Way contains maisonettes with shared access, terraces, and gardens over-looking the park at the rear. Maisonettes also occupy the top two levels of the larger 8-storey building opposite, with entrance from a walkway on the 7th floor that runs the entire length of the structure. Dwellings in the lower floor in this block are entered from open stairs serving two dwellings per floor. The flat roofs of the stepped elevation provides private outdoor areas for every home. Garage parking is located beneath the building, and underneath the building at the rear alongside the railway tracks. "
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