C20 launches 2023 ‘Risk List’ campaign
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The Twentieth Century Society has launched its latest campaign, ‘The Risk List’, to highlight the top 10 buildings most at risk of demolition, redevelopment or neglect in 2023.
image: C20 – credit: James O Davies
… these modernist monoliths are pioneering structures….like a giant, concrete Stonehenge…
The Twentieth Century Society(C20) writes:
From a Bengali women’s centre in London’s East End, to a brutalist John Lewis store in Scotland; a 1930s Art Deco holiday camp on the English Riviera, to a 1980s avant-garde pop pyramid in Milton Keynes, the 2023 list demonstrates the extraordinary breadth of architectural styles that characterised the period.
Yet these are also buildings that can divide opinion – perhaps none more so than the power station cooling towers of the Midlands and the North. Taller than the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral yet thinner than the length of a pencil, these modernist monoliths are pioneering structures that dominate the British landscape like a giant, concrete Stonehenge. Despite a stay of execution during the energy crisis this winter, all remaining examples are due to be decommissioned by 2025. Is now the moment to recognise their status as historic monuments of the future?
Re-imagination not demolition
As we begin to fully understand the grave environmental costs of demolition and its contribution to the climate crisis – more than 50,000 buildings a year are demolished in the UK, generating 126 million tonnes of waste — the urgency to repurpose and reimagine these remarkable buildings also becomes clear. Within the steel, glass and concrete walls of so many of these twentieth century landmarks, imaginative new uses can flourish that fully serve the needs of the twenty first century, without resorting to the wrecking ball.
The Risk List also encourages members of the public to get involved, with specific actions to help save each building – from writing to an MP or the Secretary of State, to joining grassroots campaigns fighting for their local buildings. In marginal cases, individual voices really can make the difference.
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