Description

The leitmotif of the complex are the so-called “streets in the sky,” broad covered walkways designed to create a neighbourly urban space for socializing. Located between two major thoroughfares, Robin Hood Gardens is an island in a sea of traffic. The complex consists of two long, sculptural blocks – one of seven stories, the other of ten –, forming a protective enclosure around a landscaped green area with a small hill made from construction rubble and sheltered depressions as children’s play areas.

The bends in the blocks are utilized for access and in part as storage areas. The walkways provide access to apartments in units comprised of three levels, in which various types of maisonettes alternate with the apartments and are continued on the floor above or below. Some two meters in width, the walkways are even wider in front of the entrances, which are set off to the side, creating niche-like anterooms.

In the interior, the maisonette stairs run parallel to this entrance area, thereby creating a buffer zone for the adjacent combined kitchen and dining area. On the upper level, the stairs lead through the corner of the living room into a corridor, the meandering layout of which subtly separates public from private spaces. On this level, the bedrooms are largely oriented toward the quieter courtyard and linked via a narrow balcony. The garden or ground floor contains apartments for seniors and families with direct access from the outside.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.