CU2105

CASEstudy
The Invisible Castle
Henri Kopra's winning submission for this year's Vectorworks Design Scholarship envisions a
new future for Nottingham's most prominent social housing complex
The Vectorworks Design Scholarship
produces some great submissions.
The winning entries typically excel in
two areas - great creativity or phenomenal
research. This year's UK winner, “The
Invisible Castle” by Henri Kopra of the
University of Nottingham, falls into the
latter category, and hypothesises the
development of social housing in
Nottingham with a remarkable journey
through the history of social housing.
Henri's research was carried out in
collaboration with Nottingham City Homes
and under the supervision of Alison Davies'
Studio Unit 5A, celebrating the centenary
of the Addison Act that enshrined council
housing in 1919.
The Title of his submission, “The Invisible
Castle“, refers to Victoria Flats, a sprawling
high-rise development in the centre of
Nottingham, which houses council tenants
and which is largely unseen by Nottingham
residents in the Street below, despite it
being the tallest building in Nottingham.
The title also serves as a metaphor for the
dwindling percentage of council house
tenants in the UK, down from 40% in 1980
to just 7% now, and the diminution of their
status. Henri argus that it is time we
revisited the provision of housing to
working class families and those unable to
afford the rapidly rising costs of home
ownership and private rents.
His views are supported by a
comprehensive review of Government
initiatives and acts since the mid 19th
century to the present. Concern about a
rapidly rising population and the
concentration of industrial workers in
growing cities and their satellites led to the
growth of 'Victorian slums'. From 1848 to
1898, act followed act with the Public Health
Act, the Artisans and Labourers Dwelling
Improvement Act, leading up to Ebeneezer
Howard's 1898 plans for Garden Cities,
designed to draw people away from the
adversities of city dwelling and place them
in healthier leafy suburbs with green spaces
and more of a rural outlook.
Little was done to achieve this until the
aftermath of the First World War, as
soldiers returned to their slums. The Prime
Minister, David Lloyd George promised to
build "Homes fit for heroes" and so the
1919 Addison Act was passed, which
authorised local councils to provide good
quality housing on a large scale - acting
upon advice from the 1917 Tudor Walters
report, which suggested that all homes
should have a parlour, living room, 3
bedrooms, bathroom and larder. The
Garden City was adopted as a template
with developments that still attract approval
today, and in the 1920's 5 million houses
were built to such standards,
costing an average of
500 pounds
each - the equivalent of two year's civil
servant's salary.
The Second World War triggered a
different response as soldiers returned to
rebuild shattered cities. A similar rush to
build was initiated but suffered from
inadequate consultations with architects
and planners, and the process was
characterised by low construction quality,
poor maintenance and overcrowding, and
the reputation for council housing declined.
The focus also switched away from
Garden Cities to higher density high rise
buildings, adopting modernism as a
philosophy and moving away from
suburban sprawl. The emphasis was on
function rather than ornamentation,
supplemented by off-site prefabrication -
the flimsy, short-lived and unloved prefab.
A slew of Government Acts moved the
process forward, including the 1956
Housing Subsidy Act which subsidised
Councils more the higher they built, until
that was cut following the Ronan Point
disaster in 1969, leading to the rapid
decline in quality and
reputation of high-rise
estates. A period of Post-
Modernist development
followed, which moved
away from the
blandness of the
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May/June 2021