Chris_Malcolm
Demolition of Brutalism
The St James Centre of Edinburgh being demolished. It was built in the the 1960s, in the then fashionable architectutal style known as Brutalism, an exposure of the functional architectural bones of a building, "brut" in French referring to the raw concrete surfaces which were often a visually prominent feature.
Reinforced concrete of the modern kind unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's point of view) is not architecturally long-lived. Reinforced concrete tower blocks even today are often designed for only a fifty year lifespan. The Georgian town houses it replaced were well over 100 years old and and could well have survived another 100 years. The St James Centre, whose unloved architectural style was often referred to locally as "Alcatraz Gothic", will be replaced by a wonderful modern monstrosity of whimsy often referred to locally as the "Golden Turd".
The next steps in this demolition will be interesting, rather like the game of pulling little wooden bricks out of a tower without knocking it down.
Original: DSC01723_DxOX
[Taken with the Tamrom 16-300mm (a recent acquisition being test driven) @ 16mm and processed by DxO Optics -- which includes auto-correction of the lens geometry and chromatic aberration.]
Demolition of Brutalism
The St James Centre of Edinburgh being demolished. It was built in the the 1960s, in the then fashionable architectutal style known as Brutalism, an exposure of the functional architectural bones of a building, "brut" in French referring to the raw concrete surfaces which were often a visually prominent feature.
Reinforced concrete of the modern kind unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's point of view) is not architecturally long-lived. Reinforced concrete tower blocks even today are often designed for only a fifty year lifespan. The Georgian town houses it replaced were well over 100 years old and and could well have survived another 100 years. The St James Centre, whose unloved architectural style was often referred to locally as "Alcatraz Gothic", will be replaced by a wonderful modern monstrosity of whimsy often referred to locally as the "Golden Turd".
The next steps in this demolition will be interesting, rather like the game of pulling little wooden bricks out of a tower without knocking it down.
Original: DSC01723_DxOX
[Taken with the Tamrom 16-300mm (a recent acquisition being test driven) @ 16mm and processed by DxO Optics -- which includes auto-correction of the lens geometry and chromatic aberration.]