BIG AND LOUD A MAGAZINE ABOUT ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE
MARCH 2017
CONTENTS
Architecture is an inspiration in the creative world of today, a unique design which combines modern materials and traditional techniques resulting into a super-sized work of art. To show the spectators the important place that can occupy in space certain buildings such a public museums. In short, a testimony of the personification of these edifices which often evoke more by their cutting-edge design than by their concrete use.
BIG AND LOUD magazine is designed and produced by Chelsea Lim, student of Middlesex University London. Photography by Chelsea Lim Printed and bound at Middlesex University London. Front and back cover and contents page image: The National Theatre
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THE BARBICAN CENTRE
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The Barbican Estate, Low-angle image of Shakespeare Tower
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THE BARBICAN HAS BEEN AWARDED THE DUBIOUS TITLE OF LONDON’S UGLIEST BUILDING
Barbican. The name of the Barbican comes from the Low Latin word ‘Barbecana’ which referred to a fortified outpost, an outer defence of a city or castle or towers over a gate which was used for defence. The Barbican is Europe’s largest multi-arts and conference venue presenting a diverse range of art, music, theatre, dance, film and creative learning events. It is also home to the London Symphony Orchestra Barbican Estate. The estate also contains three of London’s tallest residential towers, Cromwell Tower, Oliver Cromwell and Shakespeare Tower, at 42 storeys and 123 metres (404 ft) high. The top two or three floors of each block comprise three penthouse flats. Once the tallest residential towers in London, they were surpassed by the Pan Peninsula development on the Isle of Dogs.
BRUTAL! Constructed in the iconic Brutalist architecture that defined the era, the Barbican style remains divisive amongst critics and Londoners alike. The word ‘Brutalism’ is derived from Le Corbusier’s term ‘beton brut’ and translates literally as raw concrete. The style and form of the building are drawn from its intended purpose, doing away with the ostentatious and unnecessary design features popular in the pre-war movements. The result is a complex of unapologetic coarse concrete surfaces (purposely bush hammered to reveal the rough texture of the aggregate), elevated gardens and a trio of high-rise towers.
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THE BARBICAN CENTRE
Formed with a vision beyond it’s time On the northern edge of what was once Roman Londinium and there are surviving examples of the old London Wall in the Barbican Estate linking with the past. In 1958 the architects sent the City Councillors who were deliberating over it on an architectural tour of Europe, so that they would understand the modernist concepts. They were sent to Sweden to see a shopping centre which used podium walkways; to Berlins to see Le Corbusier’s work; and the Venice (hardly modernist) to consider the advantages of a pedestrian community. They came back convinced, and Chamberlin, Powell and Bon were pretty much given free reign (and a generous budget) to go ahead and realise the post-war dream of ‘a world fit for heroes’.
The Barbican Centre, Exterior detail
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The estate was built between 1965 and 1976, and the first residents moved in in 1969. In 1958 the architects sent the City Coucillors who were deliberating over it on an architectural tour of Europe, so that they would understand the modernist concepts. They were sent to Sweden to see a shopping centre which used podium walkways; to Berlins to see Le Corbusier’s work; and the Venice (hardly modernist) to consider the advantages of a pedestrian community. They came back convinced, and Chamberlin, Powell and Bon were pretty much given free reign (and a generous budget) to go ahead and realise the post-war dream of ‘a world fit for heroes’. The estate was built between 1965 and 1976, and the first residents moved in in 1969.
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n 1958 the architects sent the City Councillors who were deliberating over it on an architectural tour of Europe, so that they would understand the modernist concepts. They were sent to Sweden to see a shopping centre which used podium walkways; to Berlins to see Le Corbusier’s work; and the Venice (hardly modernist) to consider the advantages of a pedestrian community. They came back convinced, and Chamberlin, Powell and Bon were pretty much given free reign (and a generous budget) to go ahead and realise the post-war dream of ‘a world fit for heroes’. The estate was built between 1965 and 1976, and the first residents moved in in 1969.
Grey. Concrete was of course a favoured building material in the sixties. Chamberlin, Powell and Bon chose to use poured concrete rather than pre-fabricated concrete blocks. The concrete used is mixed with anaggregate and hand pick-axed.The surfaces all the way up the towers. There were some complaints from the workmen when they found out that this had to be done. Some of surfaces for the buildings which had been considered and rejected. White marble tiles, large rounded aggregate, plain poured concrete. The pick-axed surface gives an interesting texture, even warmth, to what is rather an aesthetically unforgiving material. The concrete in the Barbican has an expected life-span of 300 years.
No doubt that The Barbican Centre can be quite ugly. But strangely, there is a sense of cute nostalgia in Brutalism. From period of heavy, foreboding, grey, often sinister looking buildings, a style at its peak in the ‘60s.
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THE NATIONAL THEATRE
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I don’t want anything to come between people experiencing the theatre and your drama. They have in a way to use the concrete reality of the building, not tarted up in any way. It must just be space, walls, light. And the ornaments of the - Denys Lasdun building are people moving around.
Etched in wood Internally and externally, the rough-cast concrete surface of the National Theatre shows the imprint of the sawn wooden planks used in the casting process, which were supposedly each only used twice, once on each side. There’s much detail to explore here, in particular its materiality and wholehearted embrace of concrete just when the reputation of the material was suffering. While the engineering of the NT was pioneering in its use of computers, this exhibition nicely conveys the hand-made nature of the building.
The National Theatre, Exterior detail
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Built like a brick outhouse D
esigned by the architect Denys Lasdun, born in 1914, is a major British architect whose career began in the early 1930´s and closely followed the development of the Modern Movement in Britain. Lasdun´s style is characterized by Le Corbusier´s Five Points of a New Architecture, and “the simplicity of form, the use of concrete and glass, the new sense of space and the concern for a suitable setting for modern life”. Lasdun began his career at the height of the Modern movement, but his nfluences trended more towards Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto than Le Corbusier and Mies, and even in his own time, he defied convenient labels. As William Curtis describes, “he remained aloof from the polemics of the ‘new brutalism’, and diverged from the ‘anonymous functionalism,’ seen by some as the true way of modernism in Britain.”
Concrete reality. It took six years to design and seven to build, hampered by a national builder’s strike, the oil crisis and rampant inflation. By the time it opened, what had seemed so avant-garde when first designed had swiftly become establishment and outmoded. Nearly 40 years after its completion, the National Theatre continues to divide opinion.
Third time lucky. There are three theatres, The Olivier Theatre, The Lyttelton Theatre and The Dorfman Theatre. The National opened theatreby-theatre. The Lyttelton opened first in March 1976, with a season of plays transferred from the Company’s first home, the Old Vic. It was followed by the Olivier in October of that year with Tamburlaine The Great; the Cottesloe opened on 4 March 1977 with Illuminatus!, an eight hour play by Ken Campbell. The Queen officially opened the National Theatre on 26 October 1976. The Olivier Theatre is the largest of the three theatres at the National. It can accommodate 1,150 people in its fan-shaped auditorium, and 2,000 years of drama on its open stage.
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THE SHARD
Low angle image of The Shard
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From vision to reality D
esigned by famed architect Renzo Piano in conjunction with Broadway Malyan. Renzo Piano was intent on creating a design that stood out against the London skyline without attempting to be too overbearing or indelicate. Essentially a pyramid of glass that stands at the southern terminus of London Bridge. The term “The Shard� came about due to the semblance of the building to a shard of glass stabbing out of the ground. With a completion date of 2012 it has already been recognised as the tallest building in the European Union. It was designed to use specialised windows with a specific glazing that reflects light in a distinctive way. The glaze would reflect different intensities of light in ways that would change the appearance of the building during different seasons or times of day. Standing tall. At 309.7 metres (1,016 ft) high, the Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, the fourth-tallest building in Europe and the 107th-tallest building in the world. The 87-storey skyscraper that now dwarfs every other building in London. 11,000 glass panels, 44 lifts and a public gallery 309.6 metres above London,
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THE SHARD
Tall order T
he Shard is a multiple-use structure. Floors 2-28 are office space rental areas. The 31st, 32nd, and 33rd floors are all dedicated to restaurants. The Shangri-La Hotel takes up the 34th through the 52nd floor, and is a five star hotel. Residential apartments are between floors 53 and 65. There is also an observatory between the 68th and 72nd floors. There is a spire that runs from the 72nd floor to the very top. To make a tower on such a tight site a thing of great beauty is a rare achievement. The architects have added immeasurably to its immediate environs and to London as a whole. Like the Gherkin, this is a tower that people who don’t generally care for modern architecture seem to like. It makes people talk about architecture, which can only be a good thing. But there is much for architects to admire too. the way it meets the split ground level expressing its structure all the way; the way you keep seeing the structure from the inside of the building and the way the structure shines when it frames the views from the uppermost public platforms. Structure. The structural system of the shard is rather unique due to its form. The tower isn’t perfectly square, but rather has several different angled glass panes. The building utilizes 11,000 panes of glass, and has a total surface area of 56,000 square meters (600,000 SF). The tower in and of itself is composed mainly of concrete and steel. The center of the building contains the concrete core that goes up almost the entire height of the building, until the base of the spire, which is entirely steel. Additionally, the concrete core is surrounded by a sort of steel skeleton covered by panes of glass, which allows the structural system of the building to also contribute to its architectural appearance. The building also utilizes post-tensioned concrete and composite floor, giving it further structural strength. In conjunction with these characteristics, since the shape of the building becomes more narrow and tapers towards the top, it has a sway tolerance of 16 inches. Engineers in a post-September 11 world look to design tall skyscrapers in major cities with as much structural integrity as possible, and The Shard was designed with all of the new parameters and evaluations in mind.
Structural detail of The Shard
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Shard. A pyramid of glass that stands at the southern terminus of London Bridge. The term “The Shard� came about due to the semblance of the building to a shard of glass stabbing out of the ground. Renzo Piano was intent on creating adesign that stood out against the London skyline without attempting to be too overbearing or indelicate. It was designed to use specialised windows with a specific glazing that reflects light in a distinctive way. The glaze would reflect different intensities of light in ways that would change the appearance of the building during different seasons or times of day.
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