Up in the Air

Nothing is more subject to gross generalisation and hostile misrepresentation than the story of British high-rise. Holly Smith’s exemplary case studies and judicious summary provide nuance and complexity and genuine insight. If you really want to understand multi-storey Britain - its positives, negatives and contradictions - read this book. – John Boughton, author of Municipal DreamsFinally, a history of the British high-rise from below - a kaleidoscopic account of the civic activism that has emerged to maintain, control, repair, protect and remember the tower blocks, against the tabula rasa visions of both the past and the present. Up in the Air is both informed and pugnacious, but is dominated by the actions and memories of those who have lived high up, giving voice to their frequently frustrated desire for good, well-maintained, well-built council housing – Owen Hatherley, author of The Alienation EffectNeither rose-tinted, polemical or cynical, Smith provides us with something much more valuable: the truth. This is a history of people more than buildings: the way the humans that lived in high rises resisted, celebrated and survived amid the architectural ideas and high political theories that have defined our urban built environments since World War II. As such, it serves as a grounded history of Britain, as well as a history of our buildings in the sky. A must-read for anyone interested in the thorny question of housing in the UK. – Peter Apps, author of HomesickSmith boldly busts the enduring myths of high-rise living in the post-war period to the near present. Shorn of stories of architectural heroism, forensic in exposing craven political motivation, we are instead confronted with the voices so often ignored: those of the tenants, whose complexity, creativity, and communitarianism drive the book’s narrative. This is not just for those interested in social and architectural history; everyone concerned with the housing question today will gain from its perspicacity. – Neal Shasore, author of Designs on Democracy

Holly Smith is a historian of architecture and protest. She is a Fellow at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. Her research has been awarded the Duncan Tanner Prize by Oxford University Press and the Hawksmoor Medal by the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. She holds a PhD from University College London.