p.107 The high rise experiment
The architecture was further distorted and corrupted by the economies, bureaucracy and politics of a large public programme, so that what in the end it delivered - forests of close-set towers in an unreformed urban environment - was precisely what Le Corbusier had warned against. Most dangerously of all, it's application was widely separated from, and lost sight of, its real users, the inhabitants of the buildings. The RIBA chose to believe, somewhat against the evidence, that sociology had given high-rise housing the necessary stamp of approval. In the event, examples of estates or buildings that satisfied both the Modern Movement aesthetic and social criteria are few. Two possible candidates were the tower blocks of Erno Goldfinger in London, which after years of decay were eventually appreciated and hotly defended by some of their residents.
The architecture was further distorted and corrupted by the economies, bureaucracy and politics of a large public programme, so that what in the end it delivered - forests of close-set towers in an unreformed urban environment - was precisely what Le Corbusier had warned against. Most dangerously of all, it's application was widely separated from, and lost sight of, its real users, the inhabitants of the buildings. The RIBA chose to believe, somewhat against the evidence, that sociology had given high-rise housing the necessary stamp of approval. In the event, examples of estates or buildings that satisfied both the Modern Movement aesthetic and social criteria are few. Two possible candidates were the tower blocks of Erno Goldfinger in London, which after years of decay were eventually appreciated and hotly defended by some of their residents.