Homes are being torn down and pests and squatters are taking over the rubble of Favela do Metrô, but hundreds of families remain with nowhere else to go…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/26/favela-ghost-town-rio-world-cup
Demolition of London housing estate to begin
Demolition teams are to move in to one of Britain’s best known housing estates on Friday.
The sprawling Heygate estate in Walworth, south-east London, is close to the Aylesbury estate, which Tony Blair visited hours after his 1997 election victory. In his first leadership speech he described the residents as the “forgotten people” and pledged to tackle social exclusion in the are.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/15/demolition-london-housing-estate-begins
Housing Estates – Park Hill Estate in Sheffield
The
Park Hill estate, Sheffield: Europe’s largest Grade 2 listed building
Park
Hill in Sheffield is a large council estate comprising 995 flats. The structure was inspired by the
famous architect Le Corbusier. Leading architectural and historic buildings expert Dan Cruickshank
shows us the structure and explains its history. We learn how each floor had broad aisles wide enough
for milk floats and how the complex also incorporated a primary school and shopping precinct.
Constructed of reinforced concrete combined with yellow, orange and red brick curtain walling, it
demonstrates ‘brutalist’ modernism on a European scale. The estate was initially very
popular and successful but decayed over time to become an inner city sink estate, described by some as
a ‘mugger’s paradise’ or ‘concrete prison’. (from BBC, learning
zone)