NEW YORK: The hundred and thirty-third entry for the seniors housing Global Award for 2015 has been received.
After years of decline, council house building looks set to enjoy something of a resurgence. But can the new generation of council homes avoid the stigmas of the past?
Thames View East in Barking east London, is an example of an entirely new council housing development financed by a private equity investor but with the freehold retained by the local authority.
The scheme features many of the characteristics of contemporary council house design: simple geometries and envelope, brick facades, controlled material palette and rational, orthogonal plans. In their brightly colored front doors and projecting entrance porches, both schemes also clearly celebrate the idea of “the street”, a concept rigorously suppressed in the anonymity of many of the seventies council house estates.
