This was the Future, Vol.07
typed for your pleasure on 19 March 2005, at 5.25 pmSdtrk: ‘Stairway to promotion’ by The Gerogerigegege
Pack yr architecturally romantic mind, as today, we cover the Trellick tower in west London, England, designed by Ernö Goldfinger. *cue Shirley Bassey*
In true Modernist fashion, Goldfinger’s Tower paid little heed to its surroundings- it dwarves nearby buildings, and its Brutalist concrete exterior makes it even more striking. It is a building which also paid little attention to the worries about Modernist housing in the late 1960s.
Trellick tower is a fine and standard example of the Brutalist style that took up a good part of Sixties architectural design. They were assembled in a style that ‘remained true to the material’, which resulted in buildings that were so lacking in grace that their monolithic ‘ugliness’ became beautiful in and of itself. (What can I say? I dig tower blocks..)
And as the story goes, Bond author Ian Fleming despised both Ernö and his aesthetic sense so much, that he took Goldfinger’s surname for his own villainous creation. That’s fame, baby!
‘No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!!’ *cue Shirley Bassey*
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
This was the Future, Vol.41 on October 5th, 2009
This was the Future, Vol.03 on February 2nd, 2005
