What really builds a person or family’s sense of security? This is a topic that came up through my investigation of the Heygate Estate; a studio project I undertook this year.
I asked each dweller if they felt safe now the estate has been left to deteriorate and is so sparsely occupied. The astounding and overriding answer was yes. When they are in their carefully nurtured homes they feel perfectly protected, no one reported a break in or disruption.
The majority of people I met have lived on the estate for over 30 years. They harked back to a time when The Heygate was an ideal place to live, an urban utopia.

Corbusier learned the aesthetics of functionalism (the beauty of a carefully calculated structure sans ornament) and the positivism of the modern age.

http://www.uky.edu/Classes/PS/776/Projects/Lecorbusier/lecorbusier.html

Built on the back of Corbusier’s theories and proposals, Heygate went by the Parker Morris Committee- a report which concluded that the quality of social housing needed to progress to match rising living standards. It gave a number of suggestions, giving each home realistic space for furniture needed with what we would now consider ample space to go about normal living/household activities.

If the estate is rejuvenated and modernised it has the potential to be a great place to live. Although some might wish to forget the striking effect these buildings have on their surrounding landscape, they are a pivotal example of post war architecture. Haunting and striking they may be, but they have come to represent the area, to be the area, for better or worse.
Most residents that remain are unwell/old/alone and feel they simply can’t manage the move and will lose their support network. Those in good health are fully aware that when they move they leave behind their homes, friends, community, security, and step into the new world fuelled more than ever by fear power and possessions.