‘Concrete Dreams’: rethinking Newcastle’s brutalist past

Killingworth Towers, c. 1980.

In Tyneside, traces of a dream to build a prosperous and egalitarian city through pioneering architecture and infrastructure still linger. These ambitious ideals that took hold of the area – which spans from Newcastle to the coast in England's north-east – in the 1960s and 1970s are etched into the landscape with projects like the Civic Centre and the Central Motorway in Newcastle. While the outcomes remain controversial, the dream is being re-explored at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle, in hopes of building on that legacy to confront the challenges the city faces today.

Jack Napper's vision for a 'Linear City', originally presented in Northern Architect, July 1965 (Image credit: Courtesy of Napper Architects)