Post-war social housing
the road. The majority of the site is occupied by parkland, and the slabs are oriented such that every maisonette has a good view of nearby Richmond Park and receives a good amount of natural light during the day. Rogers remarks that ‘ the architecture feels Mediterranean ’ . While this can be seen as a positive, it also has drawbacks given the difference in climate between the Mediterranean coast and south London. What is a deeply attractive prospect in a warm climate with only unusual rainfall is not so desirable in an environment where skies tend to be overcast and there is often drizzle and strong wind. Living in tall buildings can become unpleasant if, on a daily basis, the occupant is greeted at their window not by streaming sunlight but by slanted and aggressive rain (McInnes, 2020). While this applies to both the point and slab blocks, it is relevant especially to the latter due to the design and layout of the housing units within, which prioritizes large windows and balcony space. These are common features of any modernist housing development (especially following the International style – a somewhatmisleading name given the issues it faces in different climates), and hence these problems are not unique to Alton Estate, but are instead concerns intrinsic to modernism in Britain.
Dawson’s Heights: a case study
In the late 1960s, Scottish architect Kate Macintosh began designing Dawson’s Heights in Southwark, south London. The hilltop megastructure would become a familiar presence for the residents of the south east of the city, with its unusual form visible from a distance and silhouetting against the sky. Fortress- like in its design, Dawson’s Heights is daunting from the outside and protective from within. It is a bastion of post-war modernist design in the south of the city. Before Macintosh even started to envision Dawson’s Heights, the site characteristics, as with so many inner-city sites in the 1960s and 1970s, posed a significant challenge to any structure which might be built there. The hill itself is artificial and consists of clay displaced by the building of nearby railway lines. As a result, it is impermeable to moisture and there is a constant danger that segments of the hill will slip. Parts of the existing houses around the base of the hill were sliding down causing their collapse. However, despite these difficulties, Macintosh was attracted to the site due to its raised location and stunning views of the city. In my interview with her, Macintosh described how growing up in Edinburgh gave her an appreciation of the value of views on the quality of life. Consequently, with the advice of structural engineers, she created a pair of staggered and mirrored ziggurats (see figure 5) upon 30 metre piles driven into the hill beneath. The structures are arranged such that each of the 296 dwellings receives a view of the city. Despite being separate, they are symbiotic and interdependent: Macintosh states she wanted to ‘ produce a scheme which was a totality; had a unity about it and grew out of this hill ’ (Cordell, 2018). One of Macintosh’s key considerations was how to balance the radical modernist design of the estate with the otherwise Edwardian landscape and surrounding houses (Macintosh, 2020). While without a doubt the development is clearly differentiated from the nearby housing by virtue of its dramatic form and architectural style, there are elements which make it less intrusive. For instance, the brick used matches that of the surrounding houses; it is London brick which gives the structure its yellow colour. Secondly, the two ziggurats slope vertically as they reach their extent, and as a result are the same height as the neighbouring houses at the meeting points between the estate and the surrounding area.
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