The Barbican Arts Centre is a redevelopment project that deals with layers of fabric to interweave the past, present and future into a recharged piece of architecture. The original development was characterised by notoriously difficult visitor navigation – a confusion made worse by the lack of street address (its several entrances linked to carparking and a London-wide ‘skyway’ system that was never fully realised) and years of accumulated visual clutter. To clarify entry, a former ‘back door’ on Silk Street is made more prominent through the closure of the former roadway and the introduction of a new entrance portal. To clarify circulation, a wide new bridge – set back from the theatre façade and leading on to de-cluttered internal high street – is inserted to take visitors from the new Silk Street entrance right across to Lakeside in a single, unambiguous route. The language of the architectural interventions, including two new entrances, the new bridge, interval bars and information and ticket points, is that of a family of crisply-defined, over-scaled ‘portals’ that sit confidently within the robust original spaces.

Awards
  • 2007 Design Week Wayfinding & Environmental Graphics Award
  • 2007 RIBA Award for Architecture

Exhibitions
  • 2010 50 Years of London Architecture
  • 2008 Arts Spaces of the Future
2006
Location
City of London
Cost
£12.6 Million
Client
City of London Corporation
Structural Engineer
Faber Maunsell
Project Manager
ARUP Project Management
Quantity Surveyor
Cyril Sweett Ltd
Lighting Designer
Minds Eye 3D Lighting Design
Graphic Designer
Cartlidge Levene & Morag Myerscough/Studio Myerscough
M&E Engineer
Sir Frederick Snow & Partners Ltd
 
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Allford
Hall
Monaghan
Morris