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BLOG BEING UPDATED - TRY AGAIN LATER This blog records the controversial era of British architecture, 1960's Brutalism. Many Brutalist buildings have been demolished and many still are under threat

Sunday 17 March 2013

Birmingham Central Library

Birmingham central library is a classic brutalist building designed by John Madin and opened in 1974 to replace the old Victorian central library. Despite its importance it will shortly be demolished as Birmingham's new library is completed in 2013. 

Before it is demolished I hope to visit and take a good look round but in the mean time here are some great pictures from a photography blog


3 comments:

  1. given that the plans for a new building will include no public space, and be a faceless generic monolith, i'd say keep this classic.
    if only it had been given the chance it deserved - no thanks to a local short-sighted policy of wanting to knock it down as soon as it was finished, and not exploring the structure's full potential...

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  2. Thank-you for your comment! I am in total agreement, it is a waste of resources building a new library when there is a perfectly good building and one with generous public space. The new building will not be of landmark quality of which this brutalist icon is!

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  3. Hi there I cam across this e-petition to attempt to get enough signatures to attempt to stop the demolition of the Birmingham Library. Its insane that the council want to demolish an iconic example of brutalist architecture and replace it with a building anyone could see anywhere https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/56539

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