I'm glad people appreciate the building. You all can have it... it's just not for me.
The Barbican
21–30 of 263 posts
Re: The Barbican
#22So 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 of right where you want to be but from behind a thin metal fence or gate that requires a key or fob.
Anyhow, one day I went a different way and there was this massive, tropical greenhouse. Kinda hard to believe if you've ever seen the place.
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/visit-the-co...
Re: The Barbican
#23So 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…
Op. The greenhouse was closed, hence I hadn't a chance to photograph the place. There are too many details about that place, and I only shared the pieces that I've had chance to thoroughly visit.
Re: The Barbican
#24So 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…
Op. The greenhouse was closed, hence I hadn't a chance to photograph the place. There are too many details about that place, and I only shared the pieces that I've had chance to thoroughly visit.
Yeah, was not a criticism, merely a "and you think that's all weird, there's also this" kinda statement.
Re: The Barbican
#25When people point to examples of bad brutalist architecture, I point them to the Barbican as a beautiful counter-example.
My appreciation of Brutalist architecture seems to be in direct proportion to the number of plants it incorporates.
A Brutalist building with zero plants looks like a totalitarian prison hellscape designed to destroy your soul before it destroys your body.
A Brutalist building surrounded by trees with every nook containing greenery and vines dangling down looks like some kind of idyllic Star Wars planet populated by fuzzy hobbit-like creatures.
I'm not sure why I find this effect so strong. Perhaps because flat gray concrete is aesthetically ambiguous. When paired with greenery, it looks like stone. In it's absence, it looks like industrial mechanism.
Re: The Barbican
#26> 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.
Re: The Barbican
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Op. The greenhouse was closed, hence I hadn't a chance to photograph the place. There are too many details about that place, and I only shared the pieces that I've had chance to thoroughly visit.
Yeah, was not a criticism, merely a "and you think that's all weird, there's also this" kinda statement.
All good, thanks for mentioning it. I really want to visit it. The tour guide said it's open on certain days/hours.
Re: The Barbican
#28Here's a cross-section through the theatre portion of the Barbican showing the complexity of the engineering:
https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/5w9ep7/cross_...
Re: The Barbican
#29One 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 municipal buildings that did this. Though my memory hazy and I cannot remember the specific buildings.
Re: The Barbican
#30When people point to examples of bad brutalist architecture, I point them to the Barbican as a beautiful counter-example.
And the Brunswick Centre ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_Centre ) which is not too far away. Having said that the exceptions don't make the rule.
The Brunswick Centre is one of my favourite parts of central London