A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. It is used as a residential, office building, or other functions including hotel, retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such as British English, as tower blocks and may be referred to as MDUs, standing for multi-dwelling units. A very tall high-rise building is referred to as a skyscraper.
An apartment, flat, or unit, is a self-contained housing unit that occupies part of a building, generally on a single storey. There are many names for these overall buildings, see below. The housing tenure of apartments also varies considerably, from large-scale public housing, to owner occupancy within what is legally a condominium, to tenants renting from a private landlord.
Park Hill is a housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built between 1957 and 1961, and in 1998 was given Grade II* listed building status. Following a period of decline, the estate is being renovated by developers Urban Splash into a mostly private mixed-tenure estate made up of homes for market rent, private sale, shared ownership, and student housing while around a quarter of the units in the development will be social housing. The renovation was one of the six short-listed projects for the 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize. The Estate falls within the Manor Castle ward of the City. Park Hill is also the name of the area in which the flats are sited. The name relates to the deer park attached to Sheffield Manor, the remnant of which is now known as Norfolk Park.
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council was created in 1974 to administer the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands county of England.
Balfron Tower is a 26-storey residential building in Poplar, Tower Hamlets, East London. Built in a Brutalist style, it forms part of the Brownfield Estate, an area of social housing between Chrisp Street Market and the A12 northern approach to the Blackwall Tunnel. It was designed by Ernő Goldfinger in 1963 for the London County Council, built 1965–67 by the GLC, and has been a listed building since 1996. Balfron Tower is stylistically similar to Goldfinger's later Trellick Tower in London.
Cranhill is an inner city district and housing scheme in the north east of Glasgow, Scotland. Cranhill was developed from public funding in the early 1950s and was originally, chiefly composed of four-storey tenement blocks surrounding a patch of grassland, which became Cranhill Park. Later development saw the building of three tower blocks, surrounded by rows of terraced maisonettes. In more recent years, a number of semi-detached and detached homes have been built. The area also hosts some shops, two primary schools and nurseries, a community centre and the Cranhill water tower.
Hutchesontown is an inner-city area in Glasgow, Scotland. Mostly residential, it is situated directly south of the River Clyde and forms part of the wider historic Gorbals district, which is covered by the Southside Central ward under Glasgow City Council.
Robin Hood Gardens is a residential estate in Poplar, London, designed in the late 1960s by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. It was built as a council housing estate with homes spread across 'streets in the sky': social housing characterised by broad aerial walkways in long concrete blocks, much like the Park Hill estate in Sheffield; it was informed by, and a reaction against, Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation. The estate was built by the Greater London Council, but subsequently the London Borough of Tower Hamlets became the landlord.
Glenkerry House is a housing block on the Brownfield Estate in Poplar, London, England, designed by the studio of the controversial Brutalist architect Ernő Goldfinger. 14 storeys high, it stands in proximity to and complements the appearance of Balfron Tower and Carradale House, which were designed by Goldfinger himself and are now Grade II listed. There are four four-bedroom maisonettes on the ground floor, 18 one-bedroom, 45 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom flats; 79 flats in all.
Multifamily residential is a classification of housing where multiple separate housing units for residential inhabitants are contained within one building or several buildings within one complex. Units can be next to each other, or stacked on top of each other. A common form is an apartment building. Many intentional communities incorporate multifamily residences, such as in cohousing projects. Sometimes units in a multifamily residential building are condominiums, where typically the units are owned individually rather than leased from a single apartment building owner.
The Boundary Estate is a housing development in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London.
The Cranbrook Estate is a housing estate in Bethnal Green, London, England. It is located next to Roman Road and is based around a figure of eight street called Mace Street. The estate was designed by Francis Skinner, Douglas Bailey and an elder mentor, the Soviet émigré Berthold Lubetkin.
The 1950s and 1960s saw the construction of numerous brutalist apartment blocks in Sheffield, England. The Sheffield City Council had been clearing inner-city residential slums since the early 1900s. Prior to the 1950s these slums were replaced with low-rise council housing, mostly constructed in new estates on the edge of the city. By the mid-1950s the establishment of a green belt had led to a shortage of available land on the edges of the city, whilst the government increased subsidies for the construction of high-rise apartment towers on former slum land, so the council began to construct high-rise inner city estates, adopting modernist designs and industrialised construction techniques, culminating in the construction of the award-winning Gleadless Valley and Park Hill estates.
Upperthorpe is a suburb of the City of Sheffield, England. It lies 1.2 miles (2 km) west of the city centre. The suburb falls within the Walkley ward of the City. It is an area of residential housing and is bounded by the suburbs of Walkley to the north, Crookes to the west and Netherthorpe to the south.
Wyndham Court is a block of social housing in Southampton, England. It was designed by Lyons Israel Ellis for Southampton City Council in 1966, and is located near Southampton Central station and the Mayflower Theatre. Wyndham Court includes 184 flats, three cafes or restaurants and 13 shops, and was completed in 1969.
Netherthorpe is a suburb of the City of Sheffield in England. It is one mile (1.6 km) west of the city centre. It is mostly an area of local government built housing situated on a considerable slope running downhill from the Brook Hill roundabout, at a height of 350 feet (107m), towards the Shalesmoor roundabout at a height of 160 feet (50m) over a distance of half a mile (1 km). It is bounded by the suburbs of Upperthorpe to the north, Crookesmoor to the west and the dualled Inner Ring Road to the east. The suburb falls within the Walkley ward of the City.
Roman Road, is a road in East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets entirely on the B119 on the B roads network, and lies on the old Roman road in the Roman Empire called the Pye Road running from the capital of the Iceni at Venta Icenorum to Londinium and today hosts a street market. Beginning in Old Ford at its eastern end, it passes into Globe Town and then enters into Bethnal Green to its western end.
The Alfragide Towers are a set of residential buildings in Alfragide, Amadora, Portugal. The complex consists of three residential towers and a shopping centre at ground level, connecting the three buildings. It also contains an underground car park and a complex of swimming pools, currently unused. It is an example of brutalism-influenced architecture.
The Horsefair flats are a complex of medium and high rise maisonettes and flats in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. The scheme was approved in 1956 and designed by John Poulson. The blocks were refurbished in 1999.
