Remembering the Barbican
The sunken gardens at the Barbican Complex, London.
I recently visited some friends at their unit in North Melbourne. Their unit was part of a development which occupied an entire inner-city block. The development comprised of three to four storey blocks of units built around five landscaped gardens which were linked with a pathway dissecting through the centre of the site. Many large plane and palm trees screened the buildings. The unique arrangement and 1970's style architecture of this development reminded me of the Barbican Estate in London. Like the Barbican Estate there was a defiant Brutalist Architecture aesthetic with a clear intention to form a relationship with communal open space and individual units - setting the same tone of a design that strives to create a new mode of high density living.
Upon recommendation from an Architect friend, I visited the Barbican Estate & Centre in London for the first time earlier this year. It was a grey rainy day, and as I approached the Barbican centre from St Paul's Cathedral, I was initially surprised in having to catch a lift from the street. Shortly after I was pleasantly strolling through the Barbican Estate along a covered elevated walkway where I could appreciate the concrete detailing and many courtyards below without getting wet. After passing over the beautiful sunken gardens I arrived at the Barbican Centre, which is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. The centre comprises of the Barbican Hall for the London & BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Barbican Theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company, a flexible 200 seat theatre pit, the Barbican Art Gallery and the Curve Art Space, three cinemas, a library, three restaurants, seven conference halls and two trade exhibition halls. All this is melded together in a wonderful Brutalist building.
The Barbican Centre and Estate are situated on a 14 hectare site that was originally the main fort of Roman London between 90 & 120AD. The walled fort continued to serve military function until the 16th century when it was then home to several Royal family members. The fort was heavily bombed during World War 2, and so in 1965 building began for the Barbican Estate & Complex. The estate & complex were designed by Architects Chamberlain, Powell & Bon and opened in 1969. The estate is currently home to around 4,000 people living in 2,014 flats and was graded historically significant in 2001.
References: www.wikipedia.org