Park Hill revisited

A talk by Annalie Riches

Recorded on Tuesday 4th July, at Heyne Tillett Steel, London

The Park Hill Estate in Sheffield was one of the most ambitious public housing schemes of the post-World War Two era. Designed by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith in 1953 and completed in 1961 it was initially famous for the radical vision of the time; streets in the sky, spacious duplex apartments, views over the city, district heating and modular construction systems. However, this utopian vision became blighted by poor maintenance and the wider economic collapse of industrial Britain during the 1980s and 90s, and the estate fell into disrepair. In 1998 the scheme was controversially Grade II* listed. More recently, Park Hill has been rebuilt by developers Urban Splash. Mikhail Riches were the architects for phase two of this project. Here Annalie Riches explains their approach to the work.