Home futures: a house biography of futures for a modernist high-rise estate

Abstract

House biographies tend to focus on buildings’ pasts. By comparison, this article develops a house biography of futures for a modernist high-rise estate, the Aylesbury Estate in London. It argues that a house biography of futures explores the multiple futures of house, building, estate and the built environment. To provide the biography the fieldwork involved archival research, oral history interviews and home tours, semi structured in-depth interviews and photography. The article reveals the history of governed futures at the estate. Multiple modes of future governance unfolded, such as a modernist future and regeneration, due to the indeterminacy of the future. There were a range of everyday home futures, including a modernist domesticity and more ordinary futures, with the future present in the estate’s materiality and residents’ lived experiences. The article draws attention to the multiple futures of home.