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The Barbican

arslan.io

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Re: The Barbican

#111

Post by hnlmorg »

dreghgh wrote: post #104
hnlmorg wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tottenham Court Rd is 10 mins by bike, 30mins to walk and less than 15 mins by tube. It’s also a route I’ve done often, hence how I know. And if you cannot find an art gallery, auditorium nor cinema in Soho then you’re doing something very wrong.

There are many cultural centers in the West End, Kensington, and boroughs outside the City, but none of them are 10 or 15 minutes from the Barbican center (hence your not being able to name a single one). There is a theatre at Tottenham Court Road. It is over 30 minutes away from the Barbican centre by foot (but about 10 minutes by Elizabeth line). The nearest major art gallery to TCR is not in Soho, but 15-20 minute…

The problem isn’t naming them, the problem is you shifting goal posts by saying “major”. Which could just as easily exclude the amenities at the Barbican too, given “major” is an entirely subjective term.

Also I never claimed 15 minutes by foot. And given how good public transport is in London, it’s a silly argument for you to make that we can only talk about out walking somewhere.

Plus even if we were just talking about walking, as myself and others have pointed out to you, half an hour isn’t far to walk in central London. Londoners do it all the time.

There really isn’t any need for you to be taking such an aggressive tone here.

Re: The Barbican

#113

Post by hkt »

It is a tragedy that this kind of visionary architecture isn't the mainstay of housing in the UK. I used to live in Park Hill in Sheffield, and the sheer beauty of those clean lines against a blue sky is hard to understate.

Re: The Barbican

#114

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

bobthepanda wrote: post #68
Ericson2314 wrote: post #29

One thing that I think is underappreciated as a distinguishing factor of brutalism is how three-dimensional it is. Whether its the Barbican, or "Grad Center" at Brown University, there are all sorts of elevated walkways that you can see from other levels, defying "every floor is like every other floor" expectations. I think I have vague memories of when being a small child, being filled with wonder at various municip…

These became less popular over time due to cost and safety reasons. Interbuilding passageways complicate future renovation and redevelopment, and spreading eyes on the street thinly makes all walking areas harder to secure.

> Interbuilding passageways complicate future renovation and redevelopment

They are also incredibly inconvenient. London had many walkways because they wanted to give cars priority, and they largely became unused and became a source for litter.

Re: The Barbican

#115

Post by enneff »

munificent wrote: post #26
probabletrain wrote: post #7

> all the photos where shoot with the Leica M11 + 35mm Summilux FLE These photos look great, but I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly why. The Barbican certainly looks better here than from what I remember of seeing it through the naked eye.

Good camera + good lens + good photographer + good processing. Photography is a deeper, more subtle art than a lot of people realize. Two people can take a picture in the exact same location and time and get wildly different results.

It’s hard to explain just how nice Leica lenses can be in the right hands. There is a reason they have a cult like following.

Re: The Barbican

#117

Post by mrtksn »

My office was right next to Barbican, I was going to rent a place there but I cheaped out. Still bitter about it.

The thing about Barbican is that it is an opinionated living complex. People who built it had an idea on how the urban living is supposed to be and sculptured that in concrete. Very few things are changeable there, that's why it also feels like a different time.

I enjoyed walking from my office to the tube and get amazed by this giant place everyday. Never seized to amaze me. I would occasionally go there and work at the public places, it was often empty enough to find corners or passages where I can just observer the life happening in distance.

Here's a couple of photos: https://dropover.cloud/09cb4c

Re: The Barbican

#118

Post by dreghgh »

hnlmorg wrote: post #111
dreghgh wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many cultural centers in the West End, Kensington, and boroughs outside the City, but none of them are 10 or 15 minutes from the Barbican center (hence your not being able to name a single one). There is a theatre at Tottenham Court Road. It is over 30 minutes away from the Barbican centre by foot (but about 10 minutes by Elizabeth line). The nearest major art gallery to TCR is not in Soho, but 15-20 minute…

The problem isn’t naming them, the problem is you shifting goal posts by saying “major”. Which could just as easily exclude the amenities at the Barbican too, given “major” is an entirely subjective term. Also I never claimed 15 minutes by foot . And given how good public transport is in London, it’s a silly argument for you to make that we can only talk about out walking somewhere. Plus even if we were just talking…

Name any art gallery which you think is a major art gallery, ie of comparable or greater size and prestige to the Barbican art gallery and is 15 minutes from the Barbican center, including by public transport?

You can't, because there isn't one.

You made an incorrect statement, and now you're defending it, but without providing any example at all of what you are claiming exists. So it's a little bit cheeky to claim that I am shifting the goal posts.

Re: The Barbican

#119

Post by xixixao »

eszed wrote: post #107
mjamil wrote: post #98

It is utterly weird to me that so many commenters here appreciate the Barbican's aesthetics. To me, it is an ugly eyesore that's a legacy of the brutalist wave of the mid-20th century. I lived close to it (in Islington) for many months, and avoided walking through it to get to the City (where I worked).

Like - at least in my opinion - many brutalist buildings, it's ugly from the outside and gorgeous on the inside. I've explored it many times, and agree with everything in this article and in the positive comments in the thread. And... I kinda agree with you, too. What experience - interior or exterior - architects should prioritize is an interesting conundrum.

I agree the interior is nicer than the exterior.

But it’s still dreary, in person, on a cloudy day. This style looks good in drawings, well lit and edited photos, but I think it’s a false/failed direction in living reality (specifically the facade, the building shape, “tunnels” etc).

Re: The Barbican

#120

Post by farslan »

petepete wrote: post #97
globular-toast wrote: post #75

Odd use of "nit". Generally one nitpicks someone else's work, but I guess you can do you own nitpicking? Don't think this is common, though.

For this crowd, maybe "all the photos where shoot with the Leica M11 + 35mm Summilux FLE btw" might be more apt.

Funny because I always thought of `nit` as something like `btw`. It never occured to me it's actually an abbrevation of nitpick :) Learnt something new today. I'll fix it, thank you!

(English is my second language, so stuff like this can happen sometimes)

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