Praise Architecture discussion

The intentions of architects in post-war Britain are criticised against each other; architects of the Welfare State who were designing for the benefit of those less advantaged, and the commercial architects designing for the profit of developers and themselves. However, morality was not the only reason some architects were more focused on Welfare State work. Major architectural magazines gave far greater attention to public-sector work over office buildings. Awards and prestige tended to be given to prominent government-funded buildings such as the Royal Festival Hall, the National Theatre and new university buildings. Therefore, designing for public sector projects was an advantageous career path for ambitious and creative architects.

Much of this chapter examines the Anderston Centre in Glasgow by commercial architect Richard Seifert. It was the largest of Seifert’s schemes but never reached full completion. Much of what was built categorically failed and the building is now largely left abandoned. In 2014 the Scottish Ensemble orchestra group produced a visual art and musical performance in one of the abandoned office spaces. This short documentary I found documents their production, and has some fantastic shots of the brutalist setting: https://vimeo.com/210396986

- Praise Architecture