The design of the hoardings around this building site at the lower end of the High Street in Tunbridge Wells (a conversion of a couple of buildings into a new hotel, 'One Warrick Park') is a rare, praise-worthy instance of developers taking the trouble to do something attractive with the temporary construction works:
The traditional approach to construction hoardings was to stick up a curtain of grimly utilitarian boards, in black, white or, say, sludgy green.
More recently, the trend is for boards covered with massive advertisements for the development, typically expressing irritatingly vacuous sentiments such as "CONNECT WITH THE CITY" or "AN OASIS OF STYLE". There is a whole blog, "Development Aesthetics" by Crystal Bennes, entirely dedicated to exposing the idiocy of that kind of thing.
These hoardings are different. Not only are the boards painted imperial purple, but each panel has a (presumably entirely decorative) frame of silver-painted timber. The boxes around the scaffolding poles are particularly attractive; they are reminiscent of the sort of brightly coloured pillars often found in London Underground stations. Promotional material is confined to a modest smattering of (A2-sized?) frames hung on the boards.
The overall message is one of humility and respect on the part of the developers towards the existing community. There is an anxiety here to make a positive contribution to the feel of the neighbourhood – a concern which has already manifested itself before the building is anywhere near completion.
Contrast that with the braying tone of the promotional hoardings showcased on Bennes' Development Aesthetics blog mentioned above, which seem to all be saying "Hey people, look at our big, shiny development that we'll make a lot of money from. And go fuck yourself if you can't afford to live here!"
I have previously written about the visual impact of the pre-finished state of buildings. Perhaps this is an idea that people are gradually waking up to?
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