TRELLICK TOWER BUILDING ANALYSIS

Changes from the original design tower, marking a discernible change from the negative publicity that it attracted in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Recently, Trellick Tower has gained an iconic status, being a key example of early 1970’s design; with a focus on future living, and creating a utopian community of residents, we can draw parallels to community based projects occurring today.

Originally, the tower was designed to be heated through a series of communal plant equipment, primarily a hot water tank and oil-fired boilers. These were housed in a plant room above the accommodation, inside the tower. This design decision was made to reduce the amount of pipework needed for central heating, and also used gravity for the distribution of hot water, mitigating the need for pumps. During the 1973 oil crisis, the boilers became too expensive to run and became obsolete, just 1 year after the tower opened, and electric heaters were installed in all of the flats. The boilers and equipment still remains inside the plant room, although it is now mothballed.

Trellick Tower was primarily constructed on site with In-situ castings, this is primarily due to its location in an inner city suburb, and the scale of the building, making it difficult for large, pre cast structures to be brought onto the site. The exterior is coated in a roughcast layer, creating a uniform appearance across the building.

In 1991, the tower featured in a BBC documentary, ‘Building Sights’, praised Trellick Tower and its aim to rise above the urban space, to free move of the available land for parks and pedestrians. This documentary helped change the general public perception of the

Goldfingers Legacy

Between 1999 and 2011, RIBA offered the Goldfinger Scholarship to Hungarian students to further develop there skills, awarding them a grant of around £14,000 (the 2010 scholarship amount) to pursue postgraduate studies or seek professional experience in the United Kingdom. They are funded through the late Hungarian Architects estate and family.

The Soviet Union first came into being in 1922, after the deposition of the Russian monarchy and the short lived Government of Soviet Russia. Where before there was a great divide between the haves and have-nots of of the Czarists and the rest of the population. The Soviet Union aimed to make all men equal and promote a sense of prosperity where all peoples needs were met. But widespread economic crisis swept the Union, leading to those in high raking positions living luxuriously, whilst once again the general public lived in extreme poverty.

In the early years of the Union, vast policy changes were enacted across all aspects of life, from the Military, to government bodies, architecture and construction. This led to key periods in soviet architecture being easily definable from their predecessors. Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were the First and Second leaders of the Soviet Union.

We can trace back the beginnings of Soviet architecture to the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, and the birth of ‘Stalinist Architecture’ in 1931. Cities were to follow a generalistic Development Plan, where they were split into districts; these districts were developed all at once, leading to the famous image of repeated tower blocks becoming widespread throughout the union. This still persists today throughout many of the Former Soviet Union states, a distinct and prominent reminder of their past.

Early Soviet Architecture - Constructivism (1920’s - 1930’s) and Late Soviet Architecture - Stalinism (1930’s - 1950’s)

Parallels to the Art deco styling present through Europe are easy to see in Constructivism, with key defining elements of brutalist design being intertwined. You see a dependence on raw materials like concrete being used to carry out the Realist Manifestos ideals about space and rhythm, combined with ideas about art and industry; the defining characteristics of the constructivist movement.

Where grandiose and stylisation were at the beginning of Stalinist Architecture, in 1944, the architectural style began to splinter, between rebuilding the major cities in a traditional style, to mass construction of housing, which resulted in one theme: “Form follows function” said by Louis Sullivan, which perfectly emotes the later styles of Stalinist works. Buildings were reduced to simple geometric shapes and were sparsely embellished. This follows with the mantra of the Soviet Union at the time, where speed and efficiency were at the cornerstones of thought. This all played into the idea of new, low-cost construction strategies to alleviate the housing shortage caused by the war.

The Zuev Workers Club

Designed: 1926

Architect: Ilya Golosov

Before the crackdown on creatives under the reign of Joseph Stalin, a free-thinking architectural style was more prevalent throughout the Soviet Union. One of the more famous examples of Constructivist architecture, the Zuev Workers Club houses a large foyer across the ground and first floor, with a gallery space around the outside, on the second floor sits an auditorium with seating for almost 900 people.