Lead architect Minoru Yamasaki lamented: “I never thought people were that destructive.” Its demolition in 1972 was labelled by Charles Jencks as “the day modern architecture died”.Įven today, politicians in the UK blame the design of “streets in the sky” tower blocks for building in crime – despite evidence to suggest that there were are many other social issues which contribute to these outcomes. Take, for example, Pruitt Igoe in St Louis in the US: after its completion in the early 1950s, the complex quickly became known for its poor living conditions and crime. Following a number of “failed” high-rise projects from the 1960s onward, people began to critique architecture as a form of social engineering, which could influence residents’ behaviour in negative ways. High-Rise also brings into view some of the thinking around tower blocks from the time the novel was written.
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