The Twentieth Century Society exists to safeguard the heritage of architecture and design in Britain from 1914 onwards. Caseworkers are assigned specific buildings which are under threat from demolition or change. One of the society’s key campaigns has centred on Robin Hood Gardens – a council housing complex in Poplar, east London, designed in the late 1960s by architects Alison and Peter Smithson.

The society asked us to help promote the Robin Hood Gardens campaign to a wider audience by creating an audio slideshow profiling the merits of the buildings and the argument for protection.

Approach

We worked with Jo Moore and Catherine Croft at the society to create the slideshow, visiting Robin Hood Gardens on two occasions – first to record an interview with architect, Ken Baker, and then to interview local residents. We worked with a professional photographer to capture pictures and also sourced archive images.

Outcome

Once we’d produced the audio slideshow we showed it to the team at SocietyGuardian. They were keen to run some editorial content on the campaign and asked the Twentieth Century Society to write a Joe Public Blog comment piece for them. They also commissioned their own video.

All these elements - the slideshow, online article and video – were put on the SocietyGuardian website and cross-promoted in the printed edition. On the day it all went live the visitors to our website went through the roof!

Watch our work