ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 considers the high-rise flat as a ‘modern’ space which facilitated working-class participation in the post-war consumer and design revolution. The chapter describes how residents made their flats into homes and more especially how they adopted design practices which adapted spaces to needs and tastes through adaptation and consumption. Modern homes offered an ideal template for the expression of personal taste and we explore the material culture and design aesthetics of spaces rarely considered as expressions of identity. The chapter also argues that the creation of a private family life inside the flat existed in tension with the requirements for co-operation and communality within the block. While privacy was highly valued, many were ready to participate in collective tasks. However, design and maintenance failures and changes in the high flats’ population over time ultimately caused many people to privilege privacy over community with the flat becoming a refuge rather than a symbol of social progress.
