Robin Hood Gardens is not the same as a digital model of Robin Hood Gardens

Brutalism can be less brutal than a British culture minister

Ed. This was originally published at City of Sound on 4th March 2008.

There’s an extraordinary — and rather British, I must say — kerfuffle going on over the future of the Robin Hood Gardens estate in London at the moment.

Essentially, the building, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson (aka The Smithsons) and completed in 1972, is in danger of being pulled down. Margaret Hodge, a UK culture minister, appeared to back the demolition of such buildings, suggesting a digital model could capture the essence of a building in its stead. She said:

When some concrete monstrosity — sorry, I mean modernist masterpiece — fails to make the cut despite having expert opinion behind it, let’s find a third way. This is the 21st century — a perfect digital image of the building, inside and out, could be retained forever.

In rides Building Design magazine on a white horse, and they launch a campaign to instead have the building renovated and cared for, for perhaps the first time in its existence.

I left London before I got to experience Robin Hood Gardens in the flesh, but work of The Smithsons is fascinating…