# CASPAR 2 Housing, Leeds - October 2010



## KooK. (Oct 15, 2010)

Solo explore.

The first time I visited this site was with an off-forum mate after a few bevvys, not the wisest of ideas, and I didn't have my camera. But decided to go back recently.

History from melstarrs.com and YEP

CASPAR 2(city centre apartments for single people at affordable rents), is a development of 42 apartments, CASPAR 1 is in Birmingham. Completed in 2000 it was inhabited for just 7 years, instead of its projected 60, is now to be demolished.

The site was initially open to competition and won by Levitt Bernstein on behalf of the client, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. According to RIBA contract value was £2,432,916 and was reportedly built without subsidy. Each apartment cost in the region of £60k to build, high for apartments, especially for one occupant dwellings.

The project won much acclaim after it’s completion in 2000 and won awards with both RIBA and the Civic Trust. The SDC (Sustainable Development Commission) have the development rated as a 5 star sustainable case study. The energy efficiency of the development appears to be very good.

The concept of the design was prefab offsite construction carried out by Volumetric in Bedfordshire, part of Potton Group, whose expertise include other modular buildings such as Travelodges. The reason for the initial evacuation, after an investigation by Arup, was “potentially catastrophic structural problems“. The flats have a 2% chance of collapsing in exceptionally high winds. The problem appears to lie with how the units were put together once they arrived on site (hints of what might have gone wrong included putting the ground floor flats on the fifth floor – oops!).

Further details of the project can be found here.

All this ended up being a mistake too costly to rectify without demolition.

The place is in pretty good condition, although pretty stripped I guess due to it being actual people's homes. There is evidence of squatters living there in more recent times, but apparently there was a big crack down recently and they were all turfed out.










































































Finish with a stitched together panorama

Click on the image for as full size as PB would let me upload.


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Thanks for looking


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## klempner69 (Oct 15, 2010)

You know,we have some similar shit like this in the centre of Swindon called Plaza21 thats about 5 years old and it looked derelict almost as soon as it was handed over complete with never used shop units at ground level..theres nothing quite like blind architects!!


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## Alansworld (Oct 15, 2010)

Great pics, and what an extraordinary story of utterly heroic incompetence.

A


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## Acebikerchick (Oct 15, 2010)

Love them. Gonna pop down one day for a explore myself..


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## KooK. (Oct 16, 2010)

Yup, incompetence of the highest order. I particularly enjoed the little notes on the walls such as 'No fixings on this edge'. Hopefully people will start to realise the false economy in building places like this and start building proper buildings that are meant to last again.


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## RichardH (Oct 16, 2010)

KooK. said:


> Hopefully people will start to realise the false economy in building places like this and start building proper buildings that are meant to last again.



Quite. I boggled when I read that it had a projected lifespan of _60 years_. 60 years! Who builds houses intended to last only 60 years? (Well, Pottons, obviously...)

I am nonplussed.


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## Badoosh (Oct 16, 2010)

klempner69 said:


> You know,we have some similar shit like this in the centre of Swindon called Plaza21 thats about 5 years old and it looked derelict almost as soon as it was handed over complete with never used shop units at ground level..theres nothing quite like blind architects!!



A bit like some of the recent developments in Plymouth then!


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## borntobemild (Oct 17, 2010)

The one on Birmingham is still going strong. Maybe it's the way they were put together.


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