Why Does Regeneration Create So Many Ugly Buildings?
his question was asked in the BBC web site and this article is what Owen Hatherley said.
The last paragraphs are about Leicester.
This is the site of the Leicester Science Park, where new things should be able to occur. A sign says “starting on site summer 2010”. There is no sign of it a year later.
What there is, is a new housing development. Little detached boxes in cul-de-sacs, designed for two purposes – maximising car parking and maximising profit. Each house has a little neo-Georgian porch, what the developers call a “gob-on”.
What you notice is the emptiness. Not just the huge empty wastes outside, but the empty-headedness of a society that has abandoned all hope that it could create something better than this bloody mess.
I think he’s thinking on the right lines.
For a start my new lifestyle proves that you can live without a car. But you do need a house with lots of clean space to work, socialise and relax.
C and I also brought up three kids in a tower block. Good ones certainly work and my middle son looks back on that flat in the Barbican with its superb views and lots of space with affection. My late younger son liked it so much, that when he first setup home it was in the block next door.
Too many though the Barbican is ugly. But not to the many who’ve lived there!
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The Anonymous Widower 
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