Following Saturday’s post on the ubiquitous Trellick Tower, I was introduced to this print by Jo Peel.
Whilst we’re talking urban architecture, have a look at her incredible stop-motion / street art film below!
Things Change - Jo Peel 2012 from Jo Peel on Vimeo.
From The City of Tomorrow by Le Corbusier.
Like architecture? Like techno?
Interesting review in Fact Magazine of a new release which references Brutalism in its title, artwork and musical concept.
So yes, another album cover, another grainy black and white photo of Brutalist architecture. But this time it’s a bit more thought through.
Compare with Damon Albarn’s fondness for the very same Trellick Tower in his videos, as I discussed in this blog post here.
We’ve had lots of support from Building Design magazine and they surpassed themselves at the end of our run at Blue Elephant Theatre by persuading renowned architects Kate Macintosh and George Finch to write reviews of Machines For Living!
Kate and George both worked for the Greater London Council in the 1960s, when our play is set, designing huge housing projects such as Lambeth Towers and Dawson’s Heights in Dulwich. We were lucky enough to spend a day with them whilst researching our show and it was a real pleasure to have them in the audience!
You can read their thoughts on the show in an article called ‘A Morality Play For Our Times’ (!) here.
With thanks to Elizabeth Hopkirk at Building Design
Last week we were lucky enough to meet Paul Bird, author of the Single Aspect blog (here) which scrutinises housing design and policy in the UK.
Single Aspect has been a brilliant resource during our research and it was a delight to finally meet Paul. This is a particularly interesting article he wrote about Kate Macintosh’s Dawson’s Heights building in Dulwich.
I’m off to visit Dawson’s Heights this afternoon because on Thursday, we’re going to meet Kate in person. (And we’re mildly hysterical with excitement!)
Paul also put us onto this brilliant video. Watch out for the excellent clown moment at 2:08!
Estates: An Intimate History by Lynsey Hanley
This is a bit technical but it’s one of the most interesting things I’ve discovered whilst researching our new show Machines For Living.
In February this year, Boris Jonson offered a site in Mile End to the East London Community Land Trust rather than three rival commercial developers.
A Community Land Trust buys land, builds on it and sells the properties for the value of the building, ie. the bricks and mortar but not the land. Typically, this brings the price down by around 50%.
The only condition is that if you want to sell your property in the future, you have to do so for an equivalent proportion of the market rate to the one you bought it at.
The Local Authority retains ownership of the lnd via the CLT and is able to use it to guarantee affordable housing for future generations.
Nothing short of revolutionary, in my opinion. Read more about it in The Guardian: ‘A Revolution In Social Housing’ (Feb 2012) and ‘All About Community Land Trusts’ (March 2007).
Congratulations to the East London Community Land Trust and thanks again to Dave Smith, who met with me a few weeks ago. (ELCLT website here)
The best quote I found in the RIBA library
Just read an article, published in The Quietus a few days ago, about Trellick Tower (below) and its use in Damon Albarn’s music videos.
Do click here for the full article, and keep your eyes peeled for Trellick in the three music videos below.
In its short lifetime, the Tower has been held up as an example of modernism’s beauty and aesthetic abhorrence. It’s been synonymous with crime, rape, drug addiction and murder, and been reborn as a trendy place to live.
You can follow this journey through the 3 videos below. And then, for good measure, watch David Guetta turn Peckham’s Aylesbury Estate (round the corner from The Blue Elephant Theatre) into a jungle gym of high-camp free-running.
Thanks to Jamie Barras for photo above.
We’re knee-deep in research this week, for our new show Machines For Living. Our copy of new independent film Utopia London was hand-delivered yesterday and we’re looking forward to cracking open to popcorn and watching it this afternoon!
Trailer looks fantastic. Can’t wait to meet film-maker Tom Cordell for an interview later this week. Find out more about his project here.
Utopia London documentary trailer from utopialondon on Vimeo.
