Gathering Velocities I: Tailpipe Tracts and Tower Blocks

This study examines the refurbishment of residential tower blocks in the UK according to the EnerPHit standard, which is an adaptation of the Passivhaus standard for retrofit. Currently, no single high-rise building in the UK has achieved this standard. The research focuses on the case study of Wilmcote House, a social housing tower block in Portsmouth owned and managed by Portsmouth City council. Wilmcote House is the first UK tower block being refurbished using the EnerPHit standard. Nevertheless, the building will not fully achieve EnerPHit by the time of project completion due to a lack of compliance with the primary energy demand. The Wilmcote House case study involves an investigation of the project process from the tender early stages to the delivery of the building. Research methods such as interviewing the project team members, direct observations of the project proceedings on site, attending site meetings, and archival research into the design process have led to important insights into the challenges of the pioneering real-life project. The study also investigates the refurbishment project of [REDACTED]and [REDACTED], two other social housing tower blocks in [REDACTED], to make cross-case comparisons. [REDACTED]appointed the same architects to propose a design for the refurbishment of the blocks based on EnerPHit, but they decided not to proceed with the project following the feasibility stage. The rare opportunity of the author to work with the architects at the initial stages of the [REDACTED]and [REDACTED]projects and to carry out embedded research has provided a critical understanding of the project complications. Based on the case studies, the research aims to uncover the specific requirements and difficulties related to the process of applying EnerPHit to UK tower blocks. The study also examines possible solutions to overcoming the challenges encountered at different stages of the process. The research reveals that the approach of the client and the architects towards the tower block refurbishment are two determining factors in adopting EnerPHit; the physical properties of tower blocks can create difficulties with meeting EnerPHit criteria such as primary energy demand, and the requirement for EnerPHit training and lack of sufficient communication between the teams can seriously complicate the construction stage.

The high-rise tower block is an ambiguous construction: a much-maligned architectural form yet a persistent symbol of modernity and aspiration. It is also a fulcrum for discourses about urban failure, broken communities, widening urban inequality, and insecurity. Recent tower block disasters, from the Grenfell Tower fire in London to high-rise collapses in Nairobi, have intensified such debates. In this introduction to the theme section, we explore “tower block failure” as both event and discourse. Engaging with scholarship on global urbanism, verticality, and failure as a generative force, we highlight the particular discursive, social, political, and material constellations of “failure” as it manifests in relation to tower blocks. We propose that exploring what failure sets in motion—following what failure does, rather than what it means—can help inform our understanding of urban transformation.

Johannesburg (eGoli, “place of gold” in isiZulu) has been the subject of rumour and myth from its days as a gold-mining camp in the 1880s. In the 1990s it was known as one of the most dangerous cities on earth. This discussion of the tower block that dominates Johannesburg’s skyline, Ponte City apartments, aims to get behind the stories that have also dogged the life of this infamous building. This discussion of Ponte City (1976), located just outside Johannesburg’s Central Business District in the notorious, so-called crime-ridden Berea/Hillbrow districts, demonstrates the way lives lived there have been clouded by truths and untruths frequently not of their inhabitants’ making and very frequently the stuff of hyperbole. This chapter frames Ponte as synecdoche for the wider metropolis and aims to get behind the building’s reputation as both “Tower of Terror” and the architect’s original vision that it be a bridge (pontem in Latin) to heaven. Still Africa’s tallest residential building, the 54-storey block was conceived as a luxury ‘whites-only’ tower block. As such it represents appropriated inner-city space and can be read as a monument to apartheid largess for the minority. Ponte is known, however, for having been quickly abandoned following the Soweto Uprising in 1976, after which it was reappropriated by black squatters—drug lords, pimps and gang bosses. Thus, Ponte was transformed from heavenly white vision to black hell. Or so the urban myths that the building attracts would have us believe. This account of Ponte City attempts to lay bare the building’s history and the way versions of this have variously been deployed to “script” the building according to differing (often racial) agendas and offers a more realistic account of the lives lived within this extraordinary tower block and its neighbourhood.

Book Review| December 01 1995 Review: Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland by Miles Glendinning, Stefan Muthesius Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern IrelandMiles GlendinningStefan Muthesius Nancy Austin Nancy Austin Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (1995) 54 (4): 495–496. https://doi.org/10.2307/991100 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Nancy Austin; Review: Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland by Miles Glendinning, Stefan Muthesius. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 December 1995; 54 (4): 495–496. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/991100 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1995 The Society of Architectural Historians Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The article is divided into two parts. In the first part, we examine the emergence of the tower block phenomenon and summarize the cause of its subsequent decline. The issue is important, for, as we argue, tower blocks have been used to discredit not only public housing, but state welfare provision in general. In the second part, we utilize our analysis of developments in social policy in the United Kingdom in the 1990s to generate a critique of housing renewal strategies. Although it is important not to read across simplistically between politics, cultural crit icism and policy failure, nevertheless with reference to tower blocks we argue there is a commonality between these three issues. By highlighting these links it is possible to show how many of the latest housing pro posals are influenced by a one-dimensional reading of 'modernity', accentuating the negative aspects and neglecting some of the positive attributes. As a consequence, the philosophies that now underpin housing development are, in many respects, regressive and unimagina tive.

Though it is often assumed that fear of crime erodes mental health, research evidence is limited. Our study seeks to assess the relationship between these attributes in residents of the city of Liverpool. Evidence is drawn from a sample survey of 407 adults living in 21 tower blocks. A number of social and psychosocial attributes linked with feelings of safety are compared with self-reported health status using logistic and multiple regression techniques. Possible reciprocal relationships were investigated using two-stage least squares. Fear of crime in this sample is generally much lower in the home than in Britain as a whole and much higher out on the neighbouring streets at night, but there are sub-group variations. We find significant associations between fear of crime and health status. Feelings of safety when out alone after dark is the most consistent predictor of health status. Those feeling safe score significantly higher on all five dimensions of the SF-36 measure which cover mental and social well-being. Mental health is the strongest correlate and is probably a consequence rather than cause of feelings of safety. The evidence suggests elderly residents believe tower blocks provide safe accommodation. However, feelings of safety in these 'fortresses' do not generally extend to walking in neighbouring streets. Fear of crime erodes quality of life and is associated with poorer health.

The 1970s saw an unprecedented wave of building demolition along the western side of Lambton Quay as well as in other parts of central Wellington. A 1972 survey carried out by the City Corporation identified buildings they determined to be at risk of collapse in a moderate earthquake, with "A" being the highest risk category. Those classified as "A" were then targeted for demolition. The survey followed a Chamber of Commerce discussion paper produced in November 1971 that was concerned with future regional development. As a result, many small buildings were replaced with fewer, much larger tower blocks. These tower blocks were built to maximise returns on investment according to the size of the footprint (with little or no regard for aesthetics). Although some were completed in the 1970s, others were not topped off until the 1980s.
 This paper evaluates the reasons for the apparent sudden upsurge in awareness of "awesome forces," the publicity given to the survey, and the likely outcomes for building owners. It traces the building history of a varied selection of "at risk" commercial premises; a few of which have survived - at least partially in façade form - and some of the buildings that succeeded them. At the time there seems to have been little historical consideration or awareness of what was being lost, and strengthening options were seldom explored in depth. Hence many varied two- to five-storey buildings erected in late Victorian and early Edwardian times were irreversibly pulled down to be replaced by characterless, anonymous and overbearing tower blocks.

The Paper refers briefly the London County Council's scheme for development of the South Bank area, and describes the main features of the Shell Centre which is divided into an upstream and a downstream section. A feature of the former is a tower block 351 ft high. An account is given of the ground conditions over the site and of considerations concerning the effects of extraordinary high tides. Retaining walls of prestressed concrete were designed to act as simple cantilevers. Prestressing of the walls is described. The basement of the upstream section was constructed over the tunnels of the Bakerloo Railway and its floor level was only about 7 ft above the crown of one tunnel. Special measura and precautions were taken to avoid damage to the tunnels. Calculations were made of the probable heave of the tunnels during basement excavation and careful observations carried out of the actual heave. The distortions of the tunnels were measured. The buildings are extensive, with wide differences in the foundation loading under various sections. Differential settlements had to be considered carefully and measures taken to minimize their effects. The tower block and certain other parts of the upstream section were founded upon cylinders which were generally formed by machine auger. Water was excluded from the basements by the retaining walls which formed a cut-off in the London clay. Reliance was placed upon the watertightness of the concrete in the retaining walls. These were divided into short lengths, with water bars in the joints. The upstream and the downstream sections are connected by a subway under the brick arch of the Waterloo-charing Cross railway viaduct. The construction of this subway immediately adjacetnot shallow viaduct foundations carrying heavy locomotives called for special measures. Cooling water for the air conditioning system of the building is drawn from the River Thames through a tunnel in the London clay. This was driven by hand without a shield. Compressed air was applied to the section of tunnel under the river. The framework of the tower block is steel. Up to second floor level this takes the form of welded rigid frames. Above second floor level lateral strength is provided by moment connexions with high-strength bolts, in combination with bracings incorporated in fixed wall positions. Measures taken by the contractor to achieve a high speed of construction are described briefly.

In Buenos Aires in May 1957, Ordinance 4110 was issued and entitled as “Regulations to construct ‘Tower Blocks’ that permits and promotes free-standing buildings with a basement and a high tower”. This regulation, as well as other economic, technical, and political issues of the time, led to the construction of a large number of towers, two of which this paper will highlight, that measured up to 120 meters high and that were settled in precise articulation with the fabric of the traditional block in Buenos Aires.

Validation of computer modelling of vehicular exhaust dispersion near a tower block

The reconstruction of the city of Rostock after World War IIOne can distinguish three periods in the urban planning and housing industry in the Soviet occupation zone, which also reflect architectural trends in Rostock: 1) in the years 1945–1950 – the construction industry inspired by the style of “New Objectivity”; 2) in the years 1950–1957 – the reconstruction of city centres in the style of “national tradition” (in Rostock it was Gothic art) following the Soviet model (with trunk lines, parade squares and city landmarks); 3) industrial housing industry (“wielka płyta” / panelák – blocks of fl ats constructed of pre-fabricated concrete): “cheaper, better, more beautiful” with reference to the style of the “New Objectivity”, constructing dormitory-towns with panelak (prefab) blocks of flats. The so-called Bildzeichenarchitektur (the architect Hermann Henselmann) constitutes a special architectural form, the example of which are such buildings as: the tower block for the University in Leipzig in the form of an open book, the fine tower block of the VEB Carl Zeiss enterprise in Jena in the shape of a telescope, the tower block in the shape of a large sail in Rostock (the project was not completed). The housing industry had priority over urban planning.

This article examines the representation of tower blocks in Last Resort (Pawlikowski 2000) and Red Road (Arnold 2006). Commonly associated in the popular imagination as the site of major social problems (crime, poverty, antisocial behaviour), the concrete high-rise has become the symbol of the decline of contemporary Britain. Both films recognise the structural decay that characterises many post-war housing developments and acknowledge the social problems that plague them, yet they seek to understand this deterioration as a consequence of larger social and political decisions and developments. Last Resort records the transformation of tower blocks into holding cells for asylum seekers. Red Road turns the proliferation of CCTV cameras on a Glaswegian housing estate into a metaphor for a society fearful of those people and places incongruent with a modern, affluent Britain. In each case, dramatisation enhances documentation rather than compromises it, and the tower block becomes the setting for what iek terms concrete universality, the process whereby fiction explodes documentary from within (iek 2006: 31). In this way, these films constitute a revitalised realism in which the truth of the antagonisms that divide society can best be shown in the guise of fiction.

Miles Glendinning and Stefan Muthesius. Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. New Haven: Yale University Press, for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 1994. Pp. vii, 420. $65.00 Get access Glendinning Miles and Muthesius Stefan. Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. New Haven: Yale University Press, for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 1994. Pp. vii, 420. $65.00. Norman Pearson Norman Pearson Waiden University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 100, Issue 4, October 1995, Pages 1255–1256, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/100.4.1255-a Published: 01 October 1995

While Li-ion batteries are abundant in everyday life from smart phones to electric vehicles, there are a lack of educational resources that can explain their operation, particularly their rechargeable nature. It is also important that any such resource can be understood by a wide range of age groups and backgrounds. To this end, we describe how modified tower block games sets, such as Jenga, can be used to explain the operation of Li-ion batteries. The sets can also be utilized to explain more advanced topics such as battery degradation and challenges with charging these batteries at high rates. In order to make the resource more inclusive, we also illustrate modifications to prepare tactile tower block sets, so that the activity is also suitable for blind and partially sighted students. Feedback from a range of groups supports the conclusion that the tower block sets are a useful tool to explain Li-ion battery concepts.

Government funding is directed towards the refurbishment of run‐down high‐rise blocks and estates of local authority housing through Estate Action. While glossy annual reports advertise excellent results, what independent evidence is there to support the policies recommended by PEP and Estate Action? The number of follow‐up surveys is extremely limited. When the sums of money spent annually through Estate Action are considered, this unaccountability is surely not acceptable. Additionally, on a local scale, individual local authorities should take the time to discover whether or not their schemes have been as successful with the tenants as they were intended to be and to ensure that any feedback is incorporated into future projects. Tenant surveys of two refurbished high‐rise tower blocks have been undertaken. The intention was to determine the levels of tenant satisfaction and relative success of the two schemes. Were these schemes an effective and efficient use of funds? Have they solved at least some of the wide range of problems which tower blocks such as these typically experience? Additionally, estate managers were interviewed to determine their views on the relative success of each scheme. Have these schemes indeed managed to “improve the quality of life of run down housing estates through refurbishment, tenant/ management initiatives and partnerships with the private sector...” (Sir George Young, 1985 speech as Minister for Housing and Planning, launching the Urban Housing and Renewal Unit (UHRU) later to become Estate Action).