WORDS: STEPHEN PIETRYZOWSKI
I’m not sure you’ve heard the news, but there’s this little thing floating around ruining people’s lives called the credit crunch. It’s remained a secret for a while now as the media has been trying to keep it under wraps, but it’s going to blow up pretty soon and you don’t want to know the kind of doom that’s going to befall us all. There’s going to be casualties.
First to go will be that roof over your head. Collapsing like a folding chair, the housing market is looking pretty bleak for all the nouveau rich property whores who took the More4 programme listings a little too literally. And not even Kirsty and Phil can save them now. Really tough times. This means we’re soon to enter a post-apocalyptic landscape in which urban regeneration schemes will be left half-finished, abandoned new builds will stand lonely like empty turtle shells, and council initiatives will grow over with ivy and moss, like we caught the future sleeping a dreamless sleep. It’ll be like Terminator but without any robots, because no one can afford them. In fact, Terminator looks like an attractive option right now.
As horrifically depressing as this reality is, there is one saving grace. While it’s true that we’ve all got a bit green-eyed watching Cribs and Grand Designs, and that we’d all love a pole in our basements, there’s a lot to be said for going back to basics. Yknow, streamlining. Remembering we’re still Jenny from the block. You see, 2009 is all about keeping it lo-fi. Enter 4REAL Estate as the hot new thing. It’s the property equivalent of a vintage tee, of a pair of battered Cons, of a Guided By Voices record. This doesn’t mean living in filth or embracing heroin chic like its 1996. It’s about finding beauty in the broken down, dilapidated and the left behind. And the best thing is, we can all afford that.
Here’s a selection of photos of abandoned swimming pools. Maybe it’s because they’re associated with childhood memories of summer or because swimming is a healthy pursuit, I’m not sure, but there’s something profoundly evocative about an empty pool. Well, there’s that, and also the fact that they’re pretty rad for skating too. See more here.
