Finally get to visit Barbican. I walked pass it many times when working in London 14 years ago - from the outside, architectually its not very interesting, so I did nothing more than just walking passed it before.
Now on closer examination, and with the ties to HK's WKCD (given Barbican Centre's CEO will head up WKCD in future), the development is quite an interesting idea - the residential towers apparently came up first, then the Barbican Centre (which is more performing art than visual art). Around it, there's a drama school, a secondary school and 10+ residential towers. Inside the Barbican Centre, there's a library, two gallery spaces, a cinema and a few performing halls. And lots of cafes (must be 4-5) and chill-out areas. Cutting across all of these are stretches of ponds, planted trees, and lots of outdoor seating areas. There are a few shops, mostly art related (eg, musical instruments).
Scale-wise, I dont have the exact comparison with HK - but its probably smaller than WKCD. I think the stone-y buildings felt "cold" and are not pleasing at first (I had to ask people if these are all offices - only to find out most are residential towers), but the architecture grew on me after a while, and in totality, there's a sense of harmony to it. If nothing else, it is certainly interesting to see art, commerce, residential, green space, schools, all coming together in unison.
Which got me thinking - finally, someone thought about what WKCD needs? (the headhunter got it right?) Because we could have recruited the director from a Pompidou or Guggenhim to come, but he/she will bring experience mostly in visual art, and in a very defined space. WKCD is much more than one venue - and in many ways, Barbican (even if not on same scale) is quite similar. So, perhaps finally, HK will be getting a good chief to run our giantic project?
Now on closer examination, and with the ties to HK's WKCD (given Barbican Centre's CEO will head up WKCD in future), the development is quite an interesting idea - the residential towers apparently came up first, then the Barbican Centre (which is more performing art than visual art). Around it, there's a drama school, a secondary school and 10+ residential towers. Inside the Barbican Centre, there's a library, two gallery spaces, a cinema and a few performing halls. And lots of cafes (must be 4-5) and chill-out areas. Cutting across all of these are stretches of ponds, planted trees, and lots of outdoor seating areas. There are a few shops, mostly art related (eg, musical instruments).
Scale-wise, I dont have the exact comparison with HK - but its probably smaller than WKCD. I think the stone-y buildings felt "cold" and are not pleasing at first (I had to ask people if these are all offices - only to find out most are residential towers), but the architecture grew on me after a while, and in totality, there's a sense of harmony to it. If nothing else, it is certainly interesting to see art, commerce, residential, green space, schools, all coming together in unison.
Which got me thinking - finally, someone thought about what WKCD needs? (the headhunter got it right?) Because we could have recruited the director from a Pompidou or Guggenhim to come, but he/she will bring experience mostly in visual art, and in a very defined space. WKCD is much more than one venue - and in many ways, Barbican (even if not on same scale) is quite similar. So, perhaps finally, HK will be getting a good chief to run our giantic project?
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