Robin Hood Gardens - Smithson & Smithson
34 images Created 28 Jan 2016
Robin Hood Gardens is a residential estate in Poplar, London, designed in the late 1960s by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. It was built as a Council Housing estate, social housing characterised by broad aerial walkways in long concrete blocks, much like the Park Hill estate in Shefield, it was informed by, and a reaction against, Le Corbusier’s Unité d´habitacion. The estate comprises two long curved blocks facing each other across a central green space, and in total covers 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres). The blocks are of ten and seven storeys, built from precast concrete slabs and contain 213 flats. In the central green area is a small man-made hill. The flats themselves are a mixture of single-storey apartments and two-storey maisonettes, with wide balconies (the 'streets') on every third floor. The complex is 200m north of Blackwall DLR Station with its direct links to the City of London and separated by a bus terminus. It is within sight of the nearby Balfron Tower, both are highly visible examples of Brutalist Architecture .