The renaissance of the tower block

Author: Dawn Southgate

Many of the first tower blocks, built in the 1950s and 1960s, have been demolished. London has just 360 buildings of 20 storeys or over but around 540 more are in the pipeline with many completions due this year. While the early tower blocks were associated with poverty, the new ones are linked to wealth. In Ealing, which has just two 20-plus storey buildings, 24 new ones are under development. The new towers are needed to address the shortage of homes yet most of the high-rises are being built by foreign developers for private buyers, although more affordable housing is being included. “Vertical communities” are being touted as a way of avoiding the mistakes of the past: flats could be positioned between restaurants and concert halls, for example.   The Economist, 23 March 2019, p27

[First appeared in Cutting Edge, 27 March 2019]