Saturday Evening, 7:50pm…
…I’ve literally just finished one post, and yet here I am writing another! Sheesh, enough already!
I’m diving straight back in with a rare post on Architecture, that thing I do when I’m not playing guitar or running or ferrying kids to swimming or gymnastics or karate, or any of the other things that occupy my time. The reason for this is because this week, I have been in the presence of two buildings, in two cities, from two different times, by two different architects, that suddenly made me think about how far architecture has, or hasn’t come in the last 40 years. Allow me to elaborate.
As you know, I’m beginning to spend more time in Manchester, and more specifically Salford, due to having been seconded onto a large scale residential project after having spent the last few years working on higher education projects in Birmingham. Whilst in Manchester last week I took the opportunity to go and visit the Manchester Civil Justice Courts by Denton Corker Marshall, that was nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2010. Here it is;
Now it’s fair to say that this is my kind of building. Logical, visually striking, well put together, interesting use of materials and construction, well established within the site, all the things that tick the boxes for me. A few days later (today actually), whilst up at the University of Birmingham Campus, I went and had a look at the Muirhead Tower, a brutalist concrete framed building, designed by ARUP and originally opening in the 1970’s, that has recently been fully refurbished and renovated. Here it is:
I also really like this building, there’s some wonderful 3-dimensional spaces in and around it, and the refurbishment has incorporated some very interesting visual elements. This building was, it’s fair to say, a little ahead of it’s time when originally constructed, and probably owed more than a passing nod to the clearly audible influence of Louis Kahn in it’s design. The reason it was ahead of it’s time, is that many of the methods of construction required to make a building like this perform efficiently were not available or even common practise at the time, an as such the building suffered from many thermal and system related problems, only rectified by a complete refurbishment of the concrete frame, a wholesale replacement of the glazing systems, and a completely new M&E installation.
The reason I have put these two buildings together is that there are many facets of the designs that, to me anyway, are similar. The strong geometric volumes and cantilevers are evident in both buildings, which got me thinking about how far architecture has actually progressed in the last 40 years. Buildings that were once in vogue fell out of favour, but have suddenly become ‘fashionable’ again, leading to modern designs that are echoes of the late modernist movement. If you get a chance to experience either of these buildings, then do so. Here’s another shot of the Muirhead Tower main entry staircase (DDA assessors look away now), with a metaphorical twist included for free. You’re welcome.
It’s always interesting to experience the potted architectural history within a red brick university campus. They generally contain significant building from a century of major movements and schools of thought, from Arts and Crafts through Modernism, late modernism, brutalism, new modernism, futurism; you name it, it’s there. The idea of brutalism being in vogue once more is an issue that is perhaps polarised in no greater way than the discussions surrounding the old Birmingham Central Library, which has been decommissioned and superseded by Mecanoo‘s new Libray of Birmingham, and is now doomed to the wrecking ball, in spite of a passionate campaign by the 20th Century Society to get it listed. The voice in support of brutalism has arrived perhaps too late to be heard in the arena of 21st Century of ‘development by spreadsheet’. Like the pillaging and destruction of Victorian architecture in the 1950’s to make way for the post war redevelopment of Britain, so the pillaging of fine brutalist buildings will continue apace, to make way for the edifices of the 21st century, that will no doubt suffer the same fate at the hands of future generations.
