Goodbye Birmingham Central Library

Unfortunately work has started today on demolishing John Madin's iconic 1974 brutalist gem, Birmingham Central Library. Although there have been many trying to oppose the demolition and give new life to this amazing building ultimately the developers and council have won. Aware that the old library was due for demolition I visited Birmingham in October last year to add it to my Beautiful Brutalism project.

Having only seen it in photographs it was a joy to see in real life and to photograph it myself. It is a really impress building with great use of concrete, I spent about 3hours exploring and photographing the site. I was drawn in by the bold geometry and of course the famous inverted ziggurat, which I believe is/was the only example left in the world. The scale of the building is amazing and inside the open atrium, with the cantilevered floors of the library, was beautiful.

After just 40 years to demolish this building is very narrow minded, it could have been re-used and given a new lease of life but instead a generic development of shops, offices and public spaces will be built so that Birmingham City Centre will look like every other city centre in the UK. I'm glad I got to visit and photograph it but having the building remain for years to come as a great example of Brutalist Architecture would have been a better outcome.

My Beautiful Brutalism project and the rest of the images of Birmingham Central Library can be seen here.

Comments

New Work - Brutalist Playgounds

I have wanted to visit and add some brutalist playgrounds to my Beautiful Brutalism project for a long time. I remember playing on a concrete tube we called 'the saddle' at my old primary school and loved it. So have fond memories of these concrete playgrounds. Unfortunately not many have survived but last November I researched and visited a playground that was still standing down in South Clapham beneath Belgravia House tower block. This was a fantastic playground with a spiral slide and tunnels to run through the hill that housed the slide. It was great to see the playground was well maintained and looked like it was still used. I couldn't resist and have to say the slide was fantastic! The whole project can be seen here. Then earlier this year I visited the Aintree Estate playground in Fulham. The two tower blocks, Hartopp Point and Lannoy Point are due to be demolished this year so wanted to visit before access was difficult and the area the playground is sit...

Brutalism in Photos Feature

Oracle Time Magazine featured a lovely positive article about brutalist architecture in London in their June issue of the magazine and online. Along with photographs from my ongoing personal project Beautiful Brutalism they also featured the work of photographers Simon Phipps and Hayley Goodwin. The online article can be read here .

Concrete Cambridge

Over the last few months I have been adding a few colleges in Cambridge to my Beautiful Brutalism project. Many new college buildings that were being built from the late 50's to 70's embraced contemporary architecture of concrete, steel and brick and many leading architects of the era were commissioned to design these new buildings. New Court, Christ's College and Fitzwilliam College by Denys Lasdun, George Thomson Building of Corpus Christi College by Philip Dowson of Arup and the History Faculty by James Stirling to name a few. I photographed the two Lasdun designed buildings late last year. New Court, Christ's College, 1970, has an amazing steeped slope of the students rooms with a terrace running through the middle. The rooms all have large windows that allow light to flood in and the use of exposed reinforced concrete is beautiful. Fitzwilliam College, 1964, has a very distinctive shell-vault like roof on the dining hall which is visible from the str...

JO UNDERHILL / STRUCTURALEYE

Search This Blog