The raw concrete structure of the Barbican Centre makes it one of the most prominent examples of Brutalist architecture in the UK. The art gallery in the centre of London had been illuminated with conventional ERCO lighting tools for around thirty years, and now the switch has been made to state-of-the-art LED technology.
The Barbican Centre, in the City of London, is one of Europe’s biggest cultural and conference venues. It is located in an area that was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War. The design for its reconstruction was put out to tender in the 1950s and the winner was the architectural firm of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, which took Brutalism as the basis for its design. The word “barbican” means “a fortified outpost”. Apart from being built of raw concrete, the other main features are the visibility of the materials and the structures, and the simple, clean lines. After years of planning and construction, Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the Barbican Centre in 1982, declaring the building to be “one of the modern wonders of the world”.
