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The Barbican

arslan.io

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Re: The Barbican

#71

Post by empath75 »

notahacker wrote: post #63
eilzo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Barbican was never built as social housing - the intended occupants were always central London professional workers and they charged market rates.

Which in a way actually does align with the OP's view on why it never became known as a dangerous sketchy place. Much more thought gone into the aesthetics of the Barbican than the Heygate Estate though, which is why the Heygate Estate was the one that ended up as every film scout's first choice of "scary, deprived place" even though it reportedly actually wasn't bad by the standards of south London postwar estates.…

Yeah, there's an _artistry_ to the barbican that isn't captured by just listing off the features of the complex and apartments. Whoever designed it had excellent _taste_.

Re: The Barbican

#72

Post by phoh »

mullingitover wrote: post #12

Not mentioned in the article, but this was what J. G. Ballard's novel (and later film) High Rise was based on.

i think that was Trellick Tower, by Ernő Goldfinger (who incidentally the Bond villan was named after)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trellick_Tower

https://architectureau.com/articles/the-brutality-of-vertica...

Re: The Barbican

#73

Post by jgilias »

pkd wrote: post #2

This was great and the photos were good too! I have a similar sort of fascination with a structure closer to me: Habitat 67 in Montreal. I have at various points considered buying a unit there but practicality prevents me from doing so each time. I don't know how long I'll resist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67

Curious, what are the practical concerns? The place looks fantastic to me!

I really miss more bold architectural and city planning experiments. Like, I get it, if it’s a flop, it’s a pretty expensive one. But still, it feels like the design-space there is just really under-explored.

Maybe there’s some AI-driven simulation way to explore the design-space and arrive at viable solutions before committing too much funds.

One can dream.

Re: The Barbican

#74

Post by libraryofbabel »

rjmunro wrote: post #17

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention the concert hall. It's one of London's most famous, with almost 2000 seats, and it's the London Symphony Orchestra's main home. Until last lear, The Lead Developer conference ( https://leaddev.com/ ) was held there, but it's moved to a larger venue for this year (I don't think the size of the main hall was the problem, it was the areas for break out etc.) They had a great tal…

The concert hall and theater is indeed the main reason most people who aren’t residents end up in the Barbican. When I lived in London it was almost a classical music rite of passage to get completely lost on the wrong concrete overhead walkway while rushing to get to an LSO concert there.

Unrelated, but recently the complex has been appearing in the general consciousness again as the excellent Apple TV series/spy novels Slow Horses (about a bunch of outcast MI5 agents) is set near there.

Re: The Barbican

#77

Post by vr46 »

I have many memories of barrelling through on skates with friends, and one of my favourite memories is of filming a mate skating through some flaming cones that another friend had made, basically mini molotov cocktails of small bottles filled with paraffin, we set them in a long line outside the church opposite the water and spent an hour skating around and filming ourselves. This was pre-2001, I cannot believe some of the shit we used to do.

Elsewhere in the place, I have loved going to exhibitions, theatre plays, gigs and the cinema. It's a one-stop cultural hub that evokes the glamour of flying in the olden days.

Re: The Barbican

#78

Post by earlyriser »

It looks a lot like Mass Effect Citadel, with the water reservoir in the middle. I'm surprised to not found some link documenting if it was inspired by it.

Re: The Barbican

#79

Post by Angostura »

oniony wrote: post #22

So strange to talk about the Barbican Centre as a curiousity and to not mention the greenhouse! I used to work around the area and would take 'short cuts' from the Barbican tube station through the Barbican Centre to the City. I got lost many, many times, would end up in dead ends, or the other side of lakes to where I wanted to be. Or stuck behind a metal gate I could not open. The place often taunts you with a view…

Don’t forget the only reason the greenhouse (conservatory) exists is to camouflage the fly-tower from the theatre stage below!

Re: The Barbican

#80

Post by dreghgh »

hnlmorg wrote: post #66
dreghgh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The on-site amenities are pretty good, but its central London, you’re not far from literally anything you could imagine or desire. This is totally inaccurate. It's the business district. If not for the Barbican, the nearest serious art gallery, repertory cinema, music auditorium, are all around half an hour away.

I know the area well. It’s actually more like 15 minutes. Quicker if you take the tube. But even half an hour isn’t a long walk. ;)

Go for it, which major art galleries, auditoriums and cinemas are 15 minutes from the Barbican?
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