The Park Hill Estate in Sheffield was built as a council estate between 1957 and 1961. It was designed by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith in a brutalist architectural style and has always divided opinions.
Described as revolutionary for its time, the concept was `Streets in the Sky` with wide deck areas and distinctive concrete frame. Whilst demolition of the site was being considered, in 1998 the estate was listed by English Heritage and given Grade II* status which was considered very controversial and attracted much criticism. It is the largest listed building in Europe and, with its protected status, it was decided to renovate and redevelop the site as a joint venture between Urban Splash and English Heritage.
The future of the scheme was to develop the site into desirable upmarket apartments, business units and social housing and the success has been widely publicised, including features in almost all architectural and concrete magazines, with a shortlisting for the 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize & 2023 RIBA Yorkshire awards, as well as winners of the AJ Retrofit Awards 2023.
The key involvement for KEIM Mineral Paints was renovation of the extensive concrete frame. The discoloured concrete gave a drab and dirty look to the building – not the desirable, upmarket effect that the designers were looking for. The first consideration was to paint the frame in its entirety but this would have led to the loss of what is considered to be the most iconic feature of the building. So the challenge was to renovate the frame, improve the colour and finish without creating a painted effect.
