Rather inevitably, discussion among the architectural community this week has focused on the UK riots and the question of whether the cities we have been building have contributed to social breakdown. The opinions on the role of architecture differ widely. Here’s an overview of what some people had to say.

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Robin Hood Gardens in east London, designed by Peter and Alison Smithson (Photo: Sublime Photography)

Robin Hood Garden is a council housing complex in east London designed by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. The plans to demolish the complex and replace it with a new one are surrounded by controversy and many fear for history to repeat itself once more when the current plans are pushed ahead.

In the 1960s, local authorities and urban improvers looked at Victorian terraces and declared them slums. The architects of Robin Hood Gardens wanted to lift the poor residents out of poverty, both physically and mentally, by providing them with aerial walkways or ‘streets in the sky’. It was meant to be the future of housing, but less then four decades after it was built, the estate is destined for demolition in order to be replaced by a new large scale housing development.

One proposal for Robin Hood Gardens involves a cluster of towers that is ‘pure Hong Kong, minus the vibrant street life or dramatic topography’. (Source: Guardian)

During a consultation, more than 75% of residents said they would like to see Robin Hood Gardens knocked down and replaced. But conservation organizations like Twentieth Century Society and a host of well known architects (Richard Rogers most notably called it a ‘sink estate’), are fighting to save and renovate it and turn it into a student housing complex.

The Council of Tower Hamlets, who owns the estate, last week decided to delay by a month the decision about which design team’s project should replace the estate. But  The Observer’s architecture critic Rowan Moore argues that it won’t make much difference who wins:

“We couldn’t make the same mistake again, could we? Yes we could. It could happen with the planned replacement of Robin Hood Gardens estate in east London. If you look at the sunlit, green-grassed images of the proposals, it is easy to imagine a big pointing finger descending from the fluffy white clouds, with a sign attached. “Slum of the Future”, it would say. Or, “Site for Regeneration in the Year 2050”.”

Last year, the Guardian’s architecture critic Jonathan Glancey visited the place to find out why it’s loved and hated by both residents and critics. You can watch the video coverage:

Sources: BBC, Guardian, Twentieth Century Society, Wikipedia