Birmingham Central Library in 2011

Birmingham Central Library is a rare example of brutalist architecture with the shape of an inverted ziggurat. Designed by architect John Madin and completed in 1974, the current Central Library leaves a square footprint in the street plan of Birmingham, surrounded by historic buildings. There are plans to knock it down following the opening of the new Library of Birmingham, currently under construction just 150 m away. Not everyone is happy with this idea, and supporters have joined forces on Facebook and developed projects to document this 'concrete beast' before it is too late. / S.N.

Video: Samuel Negredo at http://www.samuelnegredo.com
Music: 'Art Now' (instrumental version) by Alex Beroza at http://ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/30344
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-SA 3.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Read more about how this film was made: http://www.samuelnegredo.com/2011/03/17/video-of-birmingham-central-library-i...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• birmingham
• central
• library
• architecture
• brutalism
• brutalist
• building
• montage

[Tmuk2]

Awesome building, are they still threatening to pull it down? When will people learn...