Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Preface
- Notes on contributors
- one Restructuring large housing estates in European cities: an introduction
- two Large housing estates in Europe: a contemporary overview
- three Place making and large estates: theory and practice
- four Large housing estates in their historical context
- five Privatisation and after
- six Tackling social cohesion in ethnically diverse estates
- seven Social mix and social perspectives in post-war housing estates
- eight On physical determinism and displacement effects
- nine Who leaves Sweden’s large housing estates?
- ten Demolition of large housing estates: an overview
- eleven Building partnerships in Spanish and Italian regeneration processes
- twelve Local participation in Spain and the Netherlands
- thirteen Fighting unemployment on large housing estates: an example from Sweden
- fourteen Feelings of insecurity and young people in housing estates
- fifteen Restructuring large housing estates: does gender matter?
- sixteen Knowledge management and enhanced policy application
- seventeen Conclusions
- Appendix The context of this edited volume
- Index
one - Restructuring large housing estates in European cities: an introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Preface
- Notes on contributors
- one Restructuring large housing estates in European cities: an introduction
- two Large housing estates in Europe: a contemporary overview
- three Place making and large estates: theory and practice
- four Large housing estates in their historical context
- five Privatisation and after
- six Tackling social cohesion in ethnically diverse estates
- seven Social mix and social perspectives in post-war housing estates
- eight On physical determinism and displacement effects
- nine Who leaves Sweden’s large housing estates?
- ten Demolition of large housing estates: an overview
- eleven Building partnerships in Spanish and Italian regeneration processes
- twelve Local participation in Spain and the Netherlands
- thirteen Fighting unemployment on large housing estates: an example from Sweden
- fourteen Feelings of insecurity and young people in housing estates
- fifteen Restructuring large housing estates: does gender matter?
- sixteen Knowledge management and enhanced policy application
- seventeen Conclusions
- Appendix The context of this edited volume
- Index
Summary
We really believed, in a quasi-religious sense, in the perfectibility of human nature, in the role of architecture as a weapon of social reform … the coming Utopia when everyone would live in cheap prefabricated flat-roofed multiple dwellings – heaven on earth (Philip Johnson, US architect, quoted in Coleman, 1985, p 3).
… during the evening and night … a violent disturbance took place at the Broadwater Farm Estate, Tottenham. A police officer … was killed. Several buildings were set on fire, as well as many motor vehicles … the disturbances were the most ferocious, the most vicious riots ever seen on the mainland (Broadwater Farm Inquiry, 1986, p 3).
The first quotation refers to the 1930s-1960s, the second to the 1980s. What happened in between? Why did so many large housing estates change from celebrated urban innovations into problem areas no longer liked by their residents? Are the origins of the problems of housing estates internal to the estates themselves or are they simply spatial concentrations of more general problems of society? How widespread are the problems of large housing estates? What are the chances that large estates, developed in haste and proliferating across Europe, will disappear with the same speed?
Large housing estates in European cities: an historical note
All over Europe huge numbers of people live in large housing estates built after the Second World War. The philosophy according to which these estates were built was socially progressive and common to the different European countries involved. The origin of the estates can be traced back to the poor housing situation of the majority of the working classes at the turn of the 20th century. The principal period of construction for the large housing estates, however, came after the devastation of the Second World War, when massive building programmes were needed to replace the dwellings that had been destroyed or damaged in the war, to make up for the lack of housing production during the war, and to house the millions of people searching for a home. Demand for housing was high and further inflated by an unprecedented natural growth of the population in the early post-war years.
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- Restructuring Large Housing Estates in Europe , pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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