The Aylesbury Estate as Home

Fascinating exhibition at the Geffrye Musuem looking at the development and redevelopment of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark.

The first section looked at the aspirations for the estate as it was being built in the 1960s and 70s. The original tenants enjoyed the good views from the flats and modern fittings. It discussed how unexpected areas, such as the laundry rooms, became meeting points of the community.

It then looked at how poor maintenance and bad design of some of the public areas led to social problems in the 1980s. It was found that the raised walkways were problem areas so these were knocked down or blocked off. However I loved the section looking at different flats and showing the good lives people had built there and how they used their flats.

Finally looked at the current redevelopment looking at what the scheme wanted to achieve but also the opposition to it by some of the community. The original flats had been built to Parker Morris Standards and were large. The new flats are being built to modern standards which are a lot  smaller.

The show was accompanied by a video on sculptural installation by Nadege Meriau both suggesting the idea of dismantling the architects dream.

Closed on 18 September 2016

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