SMOUT ALLEN
INFRACTUS
Context Infractus was a response to the high-profile campaign to save Robin Hood Gardens from demolition. An outline planning application submitted in January 2012 revealed the widescale Blackwall Reach Regeneration plan, replacing RHG’s 213 council flats with up to 1,575 less-spacious new homes and transferring much of the housing stock from public to private ownership. RHG’s 213 flats were contained in two cranked ten- and seven-storey walls, which ran parallel to the A102 on its approach to the Blackwall Tunnel. The estate was an exemplar of New Brutalism, an aesthetic and architectural philosophy associated with socialist utopian ideologies, and was seen by many in the architectural community as one of the finest examples of twentiethcentury mass social housing. It was, however, considered by the council to be a flawed scheme, a reflection of misplaced utopian ambitions and compromised social ideals. The Smithsons redesigned aspects of the traditional tower block, believing they could exploit the low cost and simplicity of mass-produced materials and pre-fabricated components to provide what they hoped would be a model for future living. The flats benefitted from innovative dual-aspect layouts that exceeded the Parker Morris mandatory space requirements of the time. To recreate the neighbourliness of terraced streets, they created elevated and wideaccess decks to enable street life and facilitate social encounters. The ideal ‘streets-in-the-sky’ concept was not achieved, however, with the decks being built narrower than planned due to budgetary constraints, which also blighted other aspects of the architectural vision.
13 Sketch by Peter Smithson, 1968. Dimensions for a group, illustrating early thinking for the organisation of the public housing estates.
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14 (overleaf) Robin Hood Gardens, eastern wing. The two walls of housing are designed as defensive enclosures, acting as acoustic baffles to traffic noise and enveloping a communal green space. Originally conceived as a poetic abstraction of the English landscape, this green space featured two grassy hills, one large and one small, containing buried rubble from the demolished bombdamaged Victorian terraces on which they were built.
