Transforming Ugly Buildings

It has been obvious for years that bleak concrete buildings create bleak concrete minds. Now it’s been said by the Centre for Social Justice

Ugly buildings and shabby surroundings are fuelling an epidemic of loneliness, according to a report by the Centre for Social Justice. It says the government should stop creating ugly developments that leave people feeling dejected, otherwise it will “build its way into the social problems of the future”.

People thought in the 1960s that the new way forward was to move on from ‘mock Georgian’ housing and instead build concrete skyscrapers. Vibrant communities of terraced housing were replaced by soulless buildings that assaulted the senses and provided people with no sense of living in harmony with their surroundings.

Draconian restrictions thwarted the wishes of people to live in two storey street dwellings with gardens at front and back. Limits on square footage have given the UK the smallest houses in Europe. The fault lies with the Town and Country Planning acts that have prevented people living where they wanted to live in houses they wanted to live in.

The obvious solution is to pull down those monstrosities and build decent homes in their place. The abolition of the Town and Country Planning Acts will aid that along.

This will take time, but there is an interim low-cost solution that will brighten up the dreary drabness with splashes of colour until the obvious solution can be applied.

Think how faceless tower blocks would look with brightly coloured plastic window boxes festooned with flowers under every window. Red, yellow, blue, green. Dirt cheap, and probably donated free by Fisons or ICI. It would transform and humanize the whole building, adding a splash of colour to dull, grey lives.

Those adept at Photoshop should picture those buildings as they would look thus decorated, and residents should be shown the projected results and asked if they wished it done to their own residences. The best guess must be that they would leap at the chance. The UK’s dull drab blocks could become vibrant and human-friendly, invigorating their residents instead of brutalizing them.