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The Barbican

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Re: The Barbican

#61

Post by yardie »

"There’s an underground parking garage for the residents, but half of it is empty and filled with 20-30-year-old cars whose owners are no longer known."

Years ago I bought a flat and it came with an underground parking garage. Once we were settled in I break the garage lock and inside was an old Peugot, cans of old motor oil, and all sorts of junk shoved in between the garage door cracks. It was hell to get rid of the thing. The tires were flat. No title meant no tow trucks wanted to touch it and no scrap yard was willing to accept it. After too many months I was able to get the city to declare the car derelict. And then I had to pay a scrap yard to accept it.

Re: The Barbican

#62

Post by gwern »

ninalanyon wrote: post #16
rwmj wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exceptions prove the rule. Prove means test.

Note that he did not use the expression you are criticizing him for misusing.

The rule is the rule, and exceptions are the exception. Exceptions do not make the rule, by definition, so if your only defense of Brutalism is to say 'look at this one exception out of the tens of thousands that got built, which doesn't suck!', then you have conceded the point about Brutalism sucking.

Re: The Barbican

#63

Post by notahacker »

eilzo wrote: post #42
KaiserPro wrote: post #18

RANT ALERT: The barbican is odd, mainly because its the only brutalist "council housing estate" that actually mostly worked as intended[1] If you compare the layout/style to say the haygate estate ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13092349 where attack the block was filmed) or the lesser known aylesbury estate, its more enclosed, but no less brutalist. What is different is that unlike the southwark estat…

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. And that's before taking into account the Barbican's arts facilities and all the money spent maintaining its communcal areas

Re: The Barbican

#64

Post by tialaramex »

ukoki wrote: post #45
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and it's also in the spy thriller series Slow Horses which is good too, it's a mix of Black comedy and spy tension.

Michael Fassbender's character has an apartment there in The Agency as well

Living in the Barbican seems so very typical for a spy that it'd be like a give away.

James Bond obviously doesn't live there, but I can imagine any number of John le Carré's later characters (the early novels are set before it was built) would make sense.

Re: The Barbican

#65

Post by dreghgh »

hnlmorg wrote: post #32

I used to work on a top floor of the building next to it so had a first class view of the estate. Been there a few times and a friend used to live there too. He would rave about the place but I’m not a fan of it personally. Aesthetically it’s out of place and (in my personal opinion) a bit of an eye sore. The maze like design seems fun at first but it’s less amusing if you’re the one who’s actually lost in there and…

> 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.

Re: The Barbican

#66

Post by hnlmorg »

dreghgh wrote: post #65
hnlmorg wrote: post #32

I used to work on a top floor of the building next to it so had a first class view of the estate. Been there a few times and a friend used to live there too. He would rave about the place but I’m not a fan of it personally. Aesthetically it’s out of place and (in my personal opinion) a bit of an eye sore. The maze like design seems fun at first but it’s less amusing if you’re the one who’s actually lost in there and…

> 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. ;)

Re: The Barbican

#67

Post by Grosvenor »

tialaramex wrote: post #64
ukoki wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Michael Fassbender's character has an apartment there in The Agency as well

Living in the Barbican seems so very typical for a spy that it'd be like a give away. James Bond obviously doesn't live there, but I can imagine any number of John le Carré's later characters (the early novels are set before it was built) would make sense.

Don't they all live in Dolphin house? I swear Neil Burnside did.

Re: The Barbican

#68

Post by bobthepanda »

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.

Re: The Barbican

#69

Post by empath75 »

munificent wrote: post #25
tetris11 wrote: post #9

When 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…

With greenery on it, the concrete takes on the aspect of a cliff or a rock face, so it feels more they homes were carved out of stone, than poured out of a truck.

Re: The Barbican

#70

Post by DrakeDeaton »

Part of the thinking behind the Barbican's somewhat hidden entrances to the estate and tts maze-like layout was that they would reduce foot traffic, and it totally worked. Not many people use the public estate high-walks as a shortcut to get across the City. This has a wonderful effect wherein you're surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the City, while being just a touch insulated from it.

I lived there for the better part of a year and it completely changed my perspective on living in London. More city-life should be like the Barbican.

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