Wellness in the Sky: Analysis and Regenerative Perspectives of the Modernist Social High-Rises in London, UK

In the United Kingdom, the last decades have shown a decline in the number of homes built, while the population and the demand for housing has augmented exponentially. In the case of London, statistics show that London's population rose to a record 9.0 million in mid-2019, with rapid growth over the last decade in both Inner and Outer London. Council housing in London has a strong negative perception. A compromised standard of living is often related to the large concrete high-rises that suffer from decay, lack of maintenance and social behavior of its residents. Considering such reality, it is important to analyze and to learn from the mistakes of the past and to plan and design more than sustainable tall buildings in the future – green skyscrapers. This paper proposes an analytical framework to study the main architectural constructs of the modernist high-rise in relationship to the wellness dimensions as defined by the Global Wellness Institute (Global Wellness Institute, 2021). The architectural parameters and features in connection to the physical, social, mental, and environmental dimensions of wellness as a holistic healthy state of the inhabitants have been exemplified on a case study, namely, the Puteaux House in Cranbrook Estate, London.