John Boughton is the author of
Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing. At the
Guardian, he tagged a (UK-centric) top ten list of books about public housing, including:
Garden Suburbs of Tomorrow? A New Future for the Cottage Estates by Martin Crookston
While tower blocks loom large, so-called cottage estates – “corporation suburbia”, in the author’s phrase – have been received little attention, despite making up around one-sixth of England’s homes and 40% of the country’s remaining socially owned housing. Crookston provides a useful history and typology of these estates, but he is most concerned with their future. Some – the more sprawling, isolated and economically depressed – have their problems; often, ironically, the kind of problems held to characterise high-rise estates by reason of their design. Crookston’s thoughtful, empathetic study of these estates suggests how residents and councils might together renew the promise they once held.
Read about
the other books on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
