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The Southgate Estate was a modernist public housing project located in Runcorn New Town (Cheshire, England) and completed in 1977. The estate was designed by James Stirling, and comprised 1,500 residential units intended to house 6,000 people. The estate was demolished between 1990 and 1992 and replaced with another housing development, known as Hallwood Park, based around more traditional design principles.〔Morton, Jane ''From Southgate to Hallwood Park: 25 Years in the Life of a Community'' (Merseyside Improved Houses, 1994).〕〔Hugh Pearman, ('The naked and the demolished: the scandalous tale of James Stirling’s lost Utopia.' ), HughPearman.com (reproduction of article originally published in the ''Architect'' (USA) magazine, December 2010).〕〔(Runcorn Development Corporation, 7.2 Housing ), rudi.net〕 ==Design== The design brief for Southgate asked for formal streets and squares, citing the Georgian city of Bath. Instead, architect James Stirling devised a radical new housing type. The estate comprised a combination of deck-access apartment blocks, mainly located at its northern end, along with flat-roofed terraced housing at its southern end. The estate was connected by a pedestrian bridge linking the complex of deck-access flats to the nearby Shopping City development (later Halton Lea, now Runcorn Shopping Centre), which was intended as the New Town centre and, at the time of its completion, was one of the largest covered shopping centres in Europe. The apartment blocks were connected to one another by a network of raised walkways following the "streets in the sky" principle, separating pedestrian access from the system of vehicular access roads located to the front of the blocks at ground level. The apartment blocks were constructed of pre-cast concrete paneling along with colourful GRP cladding and were arranged around landscaped squares, some of which included children's parks. The blocks were formed of three types of dwelling: at ground and first floor levels, the blocks were formed of 3-5 bedroom duplex family homes; at second and third floor levels, smaller duplex family homes located off the raised pedestrian access decks; and at fourth floor level, single storey penthouse flats. The fronts of the blocks included car parking garages along with a series of stairwell towers providing access to the upper floors. The most notable design features on the fronts of the blocks were the large, circular windows and plastic paneling, which related to the fronts of the upper level duplexes. The rear of the blocks, which generally enclosed the landscaped squares, had private gardens at ground floor level along with balconies to the upper level duplexes and penthouses. The rear of the blocks also included large round windows. The design inspiration of the estate's layout were the Georgian squares of the Cities of Bath and Edinburgh, whilst the large round windows were intended by James Stirling to reflect the maritime roots of the estate's intended inhabitants, being drawn mainly from Merseyside. The blocks were colloquially referred to as "washing machines".〔〔 The two and three storey, flat-roofed, terraced houses were clad in blue, green, and orange plastic panels and included the large round windows seen in the apartment blocks. The cladding materials employed led to the estate being colloquially known as "Legoland".〔 The estate included a primary school at its south eastern end along with a nursery at deck level within the complex of flatted buildings. As discussed, the estate was served by a communal, oil fired heating system and was served by landscaped open spaces located in amongst the buildings. The estate was connected to the nearby shopping complex, but was not otherwise served by local shops, which could be problematic for the estate's inhabitants as Shopping City would close in the evenings and on Sundays. The estate was served by a public house. Construction had commenced on a church but this was never completed.〔 In 1977 architectural writer Sutherland Lyall described the finished estate as follows: "There is a nice, colourful, cheap and cheerful air about in the squares which are mostly planted out in grids of trees... In the squares the brightly coloured GRP more or less comes off. Deliberate or not it is two fingers to the bureaucrats who insist that architecture should be dignified and banal and colourless... But behind the back it is straight Butlins: long rows of corrugated plastic walls with the occasional service pipe running up the walls and across gaps between rows of houses."〔 - text of an article by Sutherland Lyall, ''Building Design'', 12 August 1977.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Southgate Estate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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