Park Hill - Sheffield, Concrete Utopia On A Hill
Park Hill in Sheffield was the largest, most ambitious, and for a time, most successful inner-city urban renewal scheme of the late 1950s/early 1960s in the UK.
A district of pre-existing housing was demolished to make way for the development, and being aware of the local relationships that would be dislocated, Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith of Sheffield Corporation City Architect's Department, designed the flats to be accessed through "streets in the sky", open open-air access corridors (wide enough to accommodate the local milk float) which later, though often in reduced form, became ubiquitous in similar developments, and which were intended to -and did for a time- foster the same sense of community that had existed on the streets in the area previously.
Much loved by residents in the years after its completion, Park Hill was visited by architects form all over the world and studied as a test-case in how to create modern, well designed new homes with good light, air, and space standards, for the post-war city. Sadly, because of a lack of maintenance it had fallen into disrepair by the late 1980s, but by the end of the next decade it was being rediscovered once again as a paragon of the postwar British drive to provide good quality housing for all, designed in a forthright, bold, and confident manner, leading to its listing as Grade II* in 1998.
Being complete archi-geeks at Architectural Icons, we decided to "get under the skin" of Park Hill, understand it as best we could, by modelling a large section of it in great detail in 3d CAD. The process of studying and drawing it really reminded me of the incredible way this fortress hill-town of a scheme relates so powerfully to Sheffield's unique topography, creating a romantic and sculptural urban landscape that stands as one of the great modern/brutalist wonders of the world...
Park Hill has been progressively restored and redeveloped in what I consider to be a very thoughtful manner by Hawkins Brown, Studio Egret West & Mikhail Riches, with the final phase being approved last September. I hope you all visit this restored wonder of Postwar Britain. As is our want, we have created a gorgeous collection of Cotton T-Shirts, Mugs, Posters and other products celebrating this landmark of social housing, so that you can be reminded of its wonder at home, work, and on the move... Also please take a moment to have a look at our collection celebrating Masterpieces of Social Housing, our collection of Brutalist Architecture, and all our UK Buildings.
