Another banger of a video. These are some of my least favourite buildings in London but it's brilliant to have more context for them. Super interesting.
I've never realy noticed how crazy some of these buildings look like Charing Cross station, I quite like it. it creates annother bold landmark building in the cityscape of London, anyways great video
i don’t live far from The Circle but never heard of it! People don’t like surprises, a new building is either invisible and ignored or noticed, therefore a surprise, and criticised. i’ve read enough wiki pages on famous buildings to know that people complain about new buildings regardless of how good they are in reality
Watch in 60 years when the buildings are being tore down from poor maintenance and there’s hoards of people yelling “noo don’t tear it down it’s a national treasure!! We’ll never be able to make something like that again!”. Tis the cycle continues
Love this, thanks for sharing. Reminds me of how the government kept BT Tower a secret until the early 2000s - even though everyone obviously knew it existed
I adore the BT Tower one off my favourite building in the country i would love a video looking at british TV Towers across the British Isles 😊 @CityEd.
Great video. Subscribed. You’ve changed my mind about a couple of buildings, but I still find a lot of new architecture boring and bland. I’ve never understood the unwillingness for beautiful buildings everywhere. Does beautiful and interesting have to be expensive? I’d love to know what people in a couple of hundred years think of them - if they’re still there.
Great video! English PoMo is probably one of the highest quality and most inventive/fun type of PoMo, but simultaneously also produced some of the biggest eye sores and cheap buildings in the UK (very much like the modernism it reacted against). In the field of the most famous projects, I love the Minster Court for example and fear for what the retrofit might do to it, but I also despise No1 Poultry for it’s kitchy lack of care for surroundings and the fact it destroyed a much better building. What I like most is it’s more serious (unlike always being ironic and deconstructing it) approach to history overall, which I think is one of the biggest factors that contributed to higher quality designs, even if many are controversial to this day.
Thank you! This video could honestly have been twice the length - I wanted to cover Minster Court as it’s one of my favourites, but never got round to it. May do an episode two in future. What do you think of 135 Bishopsgate? Same level of “seriousness” as Minster IMO. And I agree the proposed redevelopment of Minster is ghastly
Same old story mate. Architects come up with a good idea and build stuff, "stuff" becomes a trend and gets copied, wide boys step in and copy it cheap, the crap cheap stuff becomes hated and gives the initial concept a bad name. The cheap stuff gets knocked down, then we belatedly appreciate the remaining good stuff that was built when the architects had their good idea.
@@CityEd. I also like that building by SOM, the Crystal Palace references are very clever and I appreciate the Sullivanesque ornaments they added, it's a bit of Chicago in London, it is indeed a more serious approach to historicism than other more ironic PoMo buildings like the New Orleans Piazza. I also adore Richmond House and it's superb quality. If it wasn't for the more bare art deco ground floor I would even consider it a Neo-Gothic building, even if it's on a more austere side.
What a scoop you got meeting that architect. Great video, although you missed out my favourite postmodern London building, Minster Court- which is due for uglification. BTW, can you please pronounce h correctly. It's 'aitch'. Then I will subscribe. Unfortunately, most UK problems are due to this issue.
Castle Mall/Quarter in Norwich is a good example of post modernism. The new interpretations of older styles works very well and it blends in nicely with the surrounding city. Sadly it's a bit run down inside now but still looks very nice.
@CityEd. Great! There is a lot of nice architecture here, i live in a building designed in the "Amsterdamse School" style, a Dutch variety of the Art Deco.
I used to work in 135 Bishopsgate in the early 2000s. I remember the escalator to bring us up to the 1st level from ground and all the dark wood, brass and marble at reception. Very typical of its time. After that, it was just an ordinary office block inside, with very expansive floors and little decoration.
Cool video, I really rate your positivity towards urbanism, especially things that seem cool to hate on these days. I know you're a new channel and probably have a whole backlog of topics you wanted to talk about, but you recently posted something to r/transitdiagrams that I'd really like to see a video on. It was a fantasy map of Manchester's rail network in 2040 or 2050, but based on some legitimate proposals by Andy Burnham and his team. I know you're mostly a London channel, but I do wonder if you have any plans to do a video on the future of Manchester?
Thanks I really appreciate this. I’m still keen to do a video about that map and the choices I made, and I’d like to try and tie it into a video about Manchester’s development - it’s the UK’s YIMBY city and my hometown so definitely a place I want to cover more in future videos. Thanks again, this has definitely encouraged me to work on that next
Not a fan of postmodern architecture. The buildings often date badly and it's hard to get past the clash of materials/colours/forms that's often troubling on the eye. China Wharf works quite well because the limited use of shape and colour makes it more coherent, and it fits well with the neighbouring buildings.
one poultry is so damn ugly. bank junction is the heart of the capital and represents so much of this nations heritage. that building spits at that and anyone who wants to value such an important place.
A wonderful selection of thought provoking buildings. These days, the "smallest postmodernist building" at 10'46" (Westbourne Park) was less of a surprise than it's purpose! The roof puts me in mind of the three Grade II listed (concrete) bus shelters outside Brighton, Pavilion. These were designed by Borough Engineer David Edwards c.1950.
You've done a great job here. I've often preferred well designed and executed modernism, especially brutalism such as the South Bank - especially The National Theatre. Also Barbican - this style is so sculptural and honest with great economy of design in that the architects expressed so much with minimal forms - a bit like Asian ink painting. But you've helped me to revaluate this whimsical style of PoMo - yes, I've always admired No1 Poultry - but probably didn't appreciate Broadgate enough. Not entirely convinced by Embankment place. Fun fact - if I remember correctly, the SIS building was originally designed as apartments - I think it even went on site as such - but was later changed because I think they couldn't sell enough apartments that's why it's such a prominent site for the secret service haha - not ideal - also featured in a Bond film blowing up. Thanks - this is a great survey and well narrated by interesting key figures of the movement.
Love this comment mate thank you. I’m also fascinated by the honestly of brutalism and will definitely do a video about it in future. Love that SIS fact too
I like post modern buildings because they are extroverted and like to make an impression on people, whereas most modern buildings don't give a damn about you and are all about merely providing a cheap place of work with no regard for the public environment
Love post modernism, cause its playfull, different, but not to different cause it most of the time fits in the streetimage. The style is a beautifull mixure of old buildingfeatures mixed into new architecture. I think its not boring at all(like modernism) it is a pleasure to the eye, it is standing out, but not in a negativ way. It has a strange kind of elegance. Love the video on an underappreciated style and cause it blends so well into the rest of the street often not noticed by many people.
Pastiche done in response to criticisms by the likes 9f the then Prince Charles, whoo can forget "monstrous carbuncle". Post modernism isnt a real moment, it's just a bunch of architects who were either not creative enough, hence they copied what was fashionable at the time from the past, or just not good enough to build bold new buildings. While post modern building are easily hidden in the mess of styles that makes up London, outside the capital these buildings hiddiously stand out as a reminder of the 1980s a time of decline for everywhere except London
I used to hate PoMo, but now I've come to a more nuanced view. As with most architectural styles, there are good and bad examples. I dislike a lot of the famous and garish ones. The ones that are most successful to me are the ones you don't notice. The ones that use similar colours to surrounding buildings and try to blend in with the style. I can't decide what I think about 1 Poultry though. I think I like the point corner bit with the clock on it, but I'm not a fan of the sides. It divides my own opinion!
"Postmodernist" architecture actually looks mostly good, for the most part, but Postmodernist buildings are not at all the most common type of new building construction. Most new buildings, and buildings post-Second world war are ugly "Brutalist" and "Modernist" buildings, which is where the hate for modern architecture comes from, not from postmodernist buildings, or at least I don't see it like that.
we should make more traditonal cities using new, modern technologies but architechtures should be gothic , neo gothic , victorian ,etc , european culture is best and tradional classical architechture makes it royal
British postmodernism is great, even more considering that worldwide it's not a style that ages that well, but that building at Bank is a disgrace. So ugly and so central, it's like it was made out of spite, looks like a middle finger. The other ones in this video were pretty well implemented and blend well with the surroundings, even when contrasting with the older buildings I can feel some sense of respect.
Albeit that some of the residential developments are both attractive and functional, the main problem I have with this style (beside that many designs are overbearing and extremely ugly) is the shamelessly brash, attention seeking cultural shift it represents. While it does try to define a more stylish era, beyond the urban decay of the 1970s, it also manifests the materialistic, individualistic modern culture that the 1980's period heralded. To me, many of the most bold examples just seem like an architects/developers 'look at me' willy waving contest, and this comes off as deeply insecure, in the same vein as Trump's gaudy faux gold towers, which are essentially rooted in exactly the same cultural period and mindset.
Another banger of a video. These are some of my least favourite buildings in London but it's brilliant to have more context for them. Super interesting.
Thank you mate!
I've never realy noticed how crazy some of these buildings look like Charing Cross station, I quite like it. it creates annother bold landmark building in the cityscape of London, anyways great video
i don’t live far from The Circle but never heard of it! People don’t like surprises, a new building is either invisible and ignored or noticed, therefore a surprise, and criticised. i’ve read enough wiki pages on famous buildings to know that people complain about new buildings regardless of how good they are in reality
Watch in 60 years when the buildings are being tore down from poor maintenance and there’s hoards of people yelling “noo don’t tear it down it’s a national treasure!! We’ll never be able to make something like that again!”. Tis the cycle continues
The architects of the SIS building didn’t know which government department they were designing it for until after it was completed.
Love this, thanks for sharing. Reminds me of how the government kept BT Tower a secret until the early 2000s - even though everyone obviously knew it existed
@@CityEd. Not only that, the BT Tower was open to the public 😂
I adore the BT Tower one off my favourite building in the country i would love a video looking at british TV Towers across the British Isles 😊
@CityEd.
Video production skills are really taking off -great job!!
Great video. Subscribed.
You’ve changed my mind about a couple of buildings, but I still find a lot of new architecture boring and bland. I’ve never understood the unwillingness for beautiful buildings everywhere. Does beautiful and interesting have to be expensive? I’d love to know what people in a couple of hundred years think of them - if they’re still there.
Great video!
English PoMo is probably one of the highest quality and most inventive/fun type of PoMo, but simultaneously also produced some of the biggest eye sores and cheap buildings in the UK (very much like the modernism it reacted against).
In the field of the most famous projects, I love the Minster Court for example and fear for what the retrofit might do to it, but I also despise No1 Poultry for it’s kitchy lack of care for surroundings and the fact it destroyed a much better building.
What I like most is it’s more serious (unlike always being ironic and deconstructing it) approach to history overall, which I think is one of the biggest factors that contributed to higher quality designs, even if many are controversial to this day.
Thank you! This video could honestly have been twice the length - I wanted to cover Minster Court as it’s one of my favourites, but never got round to it. May do an episode two in future. What do you think of 135 Bishopsgate? Same level of “seriousness” as Minster IMO. And I agree the proposed redevelopment of Minster is ghastly
Same old story mate. Architects come up with a good idea and build stuff, "stuff" becomes a trend and gets copied, wide boys step in and copy it cheap, the crap cheap stuff becomes hated and gives the initial concept a bad name. The cheap stuff gets knocked down, then we belatedly appreciate the remaining good stuff that was built when the architects had their good idea.
@@CityEd. I also like that building by SOM, the Crystal Palace references are very clever and I appreciate the Sullivanesque ornaments they added, it's a bit of Chicago in London, it is indeed a more serious approach to historicism than other more ironic PoMo buildings like the New Orleans Piazza.
I also adore Richmond House and it's superb quality. If it wasn't for the more bare art deco ground floor I would even consider it a Neo-Gothic building, even if it's on a more austere side.
The Circle in Southwark reminds me of a swimming pool changing room. Not a fan personally 😂
Ha! I see what you mean
What a scoop you got meeting that architect. Great video, although you missed out my favourite postmodern London building, Minster Court- which is due for uglification. BTW, can you please pronounce h correctly. It's 'aitch'. Then I will subscribe. Unfortunately, most UK problems are due to this issue.
This is very divisive, some of those are very ugly and some of those are very beautiful, and everything in between. This is difficult!
Another great episode - keep 'em coming!
Thank you mate!
Castle Mall/Quarter in Norwich is a good example of post modernism. The new interpretations of older styles works very well and it blends in nicely with the surrounding city. Sadly it's a bit run down inside now but still looks very nice.
I thought it was quite a unique building when I last visited Norwich, it's like built into the hill that the castle is on
Great video!
Greetings from Amsterdam.
Another of my favourite cities! Great to have you here thanks for commenting. In future I’d like to do more videos about Amsterdam/the Netherlands
@CityEd. Great! There is a lot of nice architecture here, i live in a building designed in the "Amsterdamse School" style, a Dutch variety of the Art Deco.
So many buildings I never noticed! Would love to see more about London's post-millenium and contemporary architectural styles.
Great idea! I’ll look into that
Thanks for this highly informative and entertaining look at buildings from the 80's!
Another very interesting video making everyone look up and see the beauty these buildings have to offer
I used to work in 135 Bishopsgate in the early 2000s. I remember the escalator to bring us up to the 1st level from ground and all the dark wood, brass and marble at reception. Very typical of its time. After that, it was just an ordinary office block inside, with very expansive floors and little decoration.
Cool video, I really rate your positivity towards urbanism, especially things that seem cool to hate on these days. I know you're a new channel and probably have a whole backlog of topics you wanted to talk about, but you recently posted something to r/transitdiagrams that I'd really like to see a video on. It was a fantasy map of Manchester's rail network in 2040 or 2050, but based on some legitimate proposals by Andy Burnham and his team. I know you're mostly a London channel, but I do wonder if you have any plans to do a video on the future of Manchester?
Thanks I really appreciate this. I’m still keen to do a video about that map and the choices I made, and I’d like to try and tie it into a video about Manchester’s development - it’s the UK’s YIMBY city and my hometown so definitely a place I want to cover more in future videos. Thanks again, this has definitely encouraged me to work on that next
Not a fan of postmodern architecture. The buildings often date badly and it's hard to get past the clash of materials/colours/forms that's often troubling on the eye. China Wharf works quite well because the limited use of shape and colour makes it more coherent, and it fits well with the neighbouring buildings.
I'm a simple man, I dislike avant garde/futurist post modernism but like eclectic neo traditional post modernism.
one poultry is so damn ugly. bank junction is the heart of the capital and represents so much of this nations heritage. that building spits at that and anyone who wants to value such an important place.
Amazing video once again!!
A wonderful selection of thought provoking buildings. These days, the "smallest postmodernist building" at 10'46" (Westbourne Park) was less of a surprise than it's purpose! The roof puts me in mind of the three Grade II listed (concrete) bus shelters outside Brighton, Pavilion. These were designed by Borough Engineer David Edwards c.1950.
You've done a great job here. I've often preferred well designed and executed modernism, especially brutalism such as the South Bank - especially The National Theatre. Also Barbican - this style is so sculptural and honest with great economy of design in that the architects expressed so much with minimal forms - a bit like Asian ink painting. But you've helped me to revaluate this whimsical style of PoMo - yes, I've always admired No1 Poultry - but probably didn't appreciate Broadgate enough. Not entirely convinced by Embankment place.
Fun fact - if I remember correctly, the SIS building was originally designed as apartments - I think it even went on site as such - but was later changed because I think they couldn't sell enough apartments that's why it's such a prominent site for the secret service haha - not ideal - also featured in a Bond film blowing up.
Thanks - this is a great survey and well narrated by interesting key figures of the movement.
Love this comment mate thank you. I’m also fascinated by the honestly of brutalism and will definitely do a video about it in future. Love that SIS fact too
I like post modern buildings because they are extroverted and like to make an impression on people, whereas most modern buildings don't give a damn about you and are all about merely providing a cheap place of work with no regard for the public environment
Yes it is
Love post modernism, cause its playfull, different, but not to different cause it most of the time fits in the streetimage. The style is a beautifull mixure of old buildingfeatures mixed into new architecture. I think its not boring at all(like modernism) it is a pleasure to the eye, it is standing out, but not in a negativ way. It has a strange kind of elegance. Love the video on an underappreciated style and cause it blends so well into the rest of the street often not noticed by many people.
They might not be boring, but they sure are ugly
Pastiche done in response to criticisms by the likes 9f the then Prince Charles, whoo can forget "monstrous carbuncle". Post modernism isnt a real moment, it's just a bunch of architects who were either not creative enough, hence they copied what was fashionable at the time from the past, or just not good enough to build bold new buildings.
While post modern building are easily hidden in the mess of styles that makes up London, outside the capital these buildings hiddiously stand out as a reminder of the 1980s a time of decline for everywhere except London
I used to hate PoMo, but now I've come to a more nuanced view. As with most architectural styles, there are good and bad examples. I dislike a lot of the famous and garish ones. The ones that are most successful to me are the ones you don't notice. The ones that use similar colours to surrounding buildings and try to blend in with the style. I can't decide what I think about 1 Poultry though. I think I like the point corner bit with the clock on it, but I'm not a fan of the sides. It divides my own opinion!
"Postmodernist" architecture actually looks mostly good, for the most part, but Postmodernist buildings are not at all the most common type of new building construction.
Most new buildings, and buildings post-Second world war are ugly "Brutalist" and "Modernist" buildings, which is where the hate for modern architecture comes from, not from postmodernist buildings, or at least I don't see it like that.
we should make more traditonal cities using new, modern technologies but architechtures should be gothic , neo gothic , victorian ,etc , european culture is best and tradional classical architechture makes it royal
❤
No...not all boring....but mostly all ugly.
Real
British postmodernism is great, even more considering that worldwide it's not a style that ages that well, but that building at Bank is a disgrace. So ugly and so central, it's like it was made out of spite, looks like a middle finger. The other ones in this video were pretty well implemented and blend well with the surroundings, even when contrasting with the older buildings I can feel some sense of respect.
Albeit that some of the residential developments are both attractive and functional, the main problem I have with this style (beside that many designs are overbearing and extremely ugly) is the shamelessly brash, attention seeking cultural shift it represents. While it does try to define a more stylish era, beyond the urban decay of the 1970s, it also manifests the materialistic, individualistic modern culture that the 1980's period heralded. To me, many of the most bold examples just seem like an architects/developers 'look at me' willy waving contest, and this comes off as deeply insecure, in the same vein as Trump's gaudy faux gold towers, which are essentially rooted in exactly the same cultural period and mindset.
It’s awful
Can’t all modernist architects just all go to Dubai or some uninhabited island instead of making our cities ugly?
They hide behind platitudes like bold, playful etc but I truly believe they make it ugly on purpose.
Lmaooo yesss
Postmodern architecture is mostly awful. No, thanks.
4:40 no offense but you’re an absolute coward for choosing salmon over any other pink. COWARDS.
No