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The most famous implementation of the social housing "towers in the park" model - the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago - has been torn down. One of the many prob

The most famous implementation of the social housing "towers in the park" model - the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago - has been torn down. One of the many problems with the project was (in my opinion) that the tower:park proportions were way off, giving the complex an inhuman scale. I blame the influence of Le Corbusier, who does not seem to have ever met a human aesthetic instinct he did not try to subvert. The mid-rise courtyard+playground styles I see in central and northern Europe today, on the other hand, are pretty much ideal for family life. Just enough density to support a walkable daily life with lots of serendipitous social encounters, eyes on the street, a view on the kids playing with enough proximity to intervene if something goes wrong, and the opportunity for first-floor private garden space and aesthetic personalization throughout.

kasey_junk 8y ago
You can blame the architect if you want, the aesthetic was certainly...austere. But I find a different argument far more compelling. The city politicians knew exactly what they were doing in housing large swaths of the urban poor in a small section of the city. Not only that they used those projects as a way to punish independent political adversaries in the city government. Everyone who originally conceived of the programs tried to build mixed density communities spread throughout the city that were only partially social housing, but racism & power politics prevented that. Then the city doubled down & didn’t provide services appropriate for the number of people now densely packed in one place. The book “Blueprint for Disaster” outlines the history of this very well.
- marchenko 8y ago
  Agree. I certainly don't think the architecture was the primary cause of the dysfunction at RTH, but rather a visible symptom of Chicago's ill-considered, politicized, and often malevolent housing policy.

kasey_junk 8y ago

You can blame the architect if you want, the aesthetic was certainly...austere. But I find a different argument far more compelling. The city politicians knew exactly what they were doing in housing large swaths of the urban poor in a small section of the city. Not only that they used those projects as a way to punish independent political adversaries in the city government. Everyone who originally conceived of the programs tried to build mixed density communities spread throughout the city that were only partially social housing, but racism & power politics prevented that. Then the city doubled down & didn’t provide services appropriate for the number of people now densely packed in one place. The book “Blueprint for Disaster” outlines the history of this very well.

marchenko 8y ago
Agree. I certainly don't think the architecture was the primary cause of the dysfunction at RTH, but rather a visible symptom of Chicago's ill-considered, politicized, and often malevolent housing policy.