I took a tour round Park Hill last month as part of Site Gallery’s Brutalist Speculations and Flights of Fancy book launch. Led by writer Owen Hatherley, we traipsed around the old, new and abandoned bits of Europe’s largest listed site.
The was an odd romanticism to the whole affair, and a deep sympathy for the unloved and unwanted. The mythical past of these concrete giants is slowly receding into history, and their once functional forms are now abstract angles and blocks on the skyline.
They’re endangered, too. This week, Preston’s brutalist bus station was added to an “at risk” list maintained by the World Monuments Fund. This status, however, won’t be enough to save it from its planned demolition. But is this surprising for a form of architecture considered eyesores by many? The philosophical and social vision behind these buildings is often forgotten or rejected as a failure.
Dreams encased in concrete.
You can read more about my tour of Park Hill and the Brutalist Speculations… book launch in my post for The Culture Vulture.
