'A Tall Storey ... but, a Fact Just the Same': The Red Road High-rise as a Black Box

TLDR

The advent of state-sponsored mass high‑rise housing in post‑war Britain brought into view a range of issues about the role of technology in everyday life. This paper draws on approaches in the study of science and technology to deepen our understanding of the socio‑technical aspects of such high‑rise housing, past and present. The authors examine a 1960s high‑rise development, Red Road, Glasgow, focusing on its inaugural phase and the most recent redevelopment phase, the first stage of which is demolition. The paper extends existing accounts of residential high‑rises generally and Red Road specifically, and proposes an alternate analytical framework for understanding high‑rise and supertall dwellings.

Abstract

The advent of state-sponsored mass high-rise housing in post-war Britain brought into view a range of issues about the role of technology in everyday life. This paper draws on approaches in the study of science and technology in order to deepen our understanding of the socio-technical aspects of such high-rise housing, past and present. This thinking is elaborated empirically by examining a 1960s high-rise development, Red Road, Glasgow. The paper examines the inaugural phase of development and the most recent phase of 'redevelopment', the first stage of which is demolition. The paper extends existing accounts of residential high-rises generally and Red Road specifically, as well as elaborating an alternate analytical framework for understanding high-rise and supertall dwellings.