advertisement


Brutalism Fan?

There used to be amazing brutalist multi-story flats in the Gorbals, ships in the air I think the architect said they were, Sir Basil Spence was the architect and my God they were ugly but in a beautiful way.

A few of my school mates lived in them I remember being up in them when the power strikes were on back in the seventies.

Queen Elizabeth Square flats, don't think they were ever finished properly they way Spence designed them.

They were blown up about 1994 and a local woman was killed at the demolition.

Me and my wife and kids were at the demolition that day but luckily we were pretty far back away from the flats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutchesontown_C
 
"The main block was split into three sections, A, B and C (jokingly nicknamed by residents after notorious internment facilities of "Alcatraz", "Barlinnie" and "Colditz.")".
 
"The main block was split into three sections, A, B and C (jokingly nicknamed by residents after notorious internment facilities of "Alcatraz", "Barlinnie" and "Colditz.")".

There was a fountain and pool below the flats but they ended having to concrete it over cause people kept throwing bottles into the pond. The Gorbals wasn’t really the place to build those flats for a number of reasons the weather being one of them.
 
I can’t remember which company it was, but there was (probably still is) a fine example of brutalist building just off the M4, near Reading. Anybody know this one? It’s bugging me now.
 

They built deck blocks in the Gorbals too terrible things people hated them they ended up knocking them down, they were called the 'damp blocks. by residents I had mates live in those too.

Those flats had been built in Poland and leaked like sieves there too but they went ahead and built them in possibly the wettest place in the UK.

We were lucky we lived in maisonettes (Gorbals/Hutcheson town) built around the same time as the QE2 blocks but they were 'normal' houses.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/notoriously-dire-gorbals-flats-locals-23683548
 
Some of it looks good in b&w photos but concrete is a terrible construction material, both for the environment and in terms energy efficience, water-resistance and durability.
 
Some of it looks good in b&w photos but concrete is a terrible construction material, both for the environment and in terms energy efficience, water-resistance and durability.

I like it as a material there's a programme here on iplayer Scotland's home of the year and there was a home on that that had been built out of an old concrete water tank looked amazing it has a vaulted ceiling and thick concrete walls with grass on the roof.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/tv/bbc-scotlands-home-year-fans-24108432
 
University of Reading?
No, it was a company name. Not one I recognised at the time, or can remember now, but perhaps engineering of some sort. The plan had, as I recall, some sort of hexagonal interlocking terraces and modules. It was quite a large building, so an evidently quite substantial company.
 
No, it was a company name. Not one I recognised at the time, or can remember now, but perhaps engineering of some sort. The plan had, as I recall, some sort of hexagonal interlocking terraces and modules. It was quite a large building, so an evidently quite substantial company.

Amec Foster / Wheeler, now Wood I think, at Shinfield Park.

thumb.php
 
I like it as a material

It's got amazing plasticity qualities for "sculpting" buildings but unfortunately the downsides are significant.
There are many very interesting projects made of exposed concrete around the world.
 


advertisement


Back
Top