Making way for (green) progressMaking way for (green) progress

To be demolished?

What was the 60s good for? The Beatles? An England World Cup Victory? Man landing on the Moon? All good things... but one thing that we're never going to appreciate is the architecture. Massive concrete towers that look like they've come straight out of Soviet Russia....

In these environmental conscious times, these buildings just don't cut it with their poor insulated exteriors and their asbestos riddled interiors. With the high costs to renovate and retrofit them, it seems the cheaper option to deal with these hulking monstrosities is to tear them down and rebuild green buildings in their place.

Speaking to The Times, Paul Morrell, the country's new construction advisor, believes this is the only solution (and to be honest, it's a god send. Who really does like those concrete block of flats made famous by the likes of Get Carter?).

"In the '60s, everything was built cheaper, faster, and nastier. If you are going to try to fix buildings, then really you won't have too many problems with anything built earlier than the '50s or after the '80s."

"Although you can do some things to buildings from the Sixties and Seventies, like replacing the roofs, there are probably some places that need to come down entirely.”

A necessary relief

Currently, the UK is attempting to cut its carbon emissions to 80 percent of 1990s levels by 2050. With a third of emissions said to come from domestic appliances and buildings, the focus is on making all new buildings built from 2018 carbon-neutral.

However to meet this, huge areas of cities built in the 60s and 70s could be torn down - such as Newcastle City Centre. As if to compound the fact, Morrell says, "The buildings that pose the most difficulties are semi-industrialised, highly inefficient, badly insulated and so ugly that they are not worth refurbishing.”

Of course, some of these buildings, such as the Tricorn Center in Portsmouth, are listed as historic by English Heritage and are immune from eco re-fits like new windows. As such, their emissions don't count towards the country's carbon footprint.

Of course with many of these buildings, the decision will only be made to knock them down if it is more energy-efficient to demolish and start from scratch, or refurbish it. Unfortunately, the methodology for making such a decision like that is hardly common practice.

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