Media

Adam Caruso - caruso st john architects | longtime barbican resident and architect

“The height and volume of the proposal in no way acknowledges the history or the specific character of the site and its surroundings. Its architecture, organisation, and scale come from a globalised language of contemporary commercial architecture. This lack of sensitivity to the Conservation Area is not only evident on Silk Street and its surroundings but is also at the scale of the City as a whole, where the unique profile of the Barbican Estate’s three towers will be, for the first time, greatly compromised.”

Amanda levete CBE | architect

"As a Stirling Prize winning architect, I wish to object to the 1 Silk Street development as referenced above. The building is completely inappropriate in scale and height for the setting of the Barbican development, damaging the heritage and conservation area. There will clearly be a loss of sunlight and daylight to the surrounding areas and community. This speculative office building is too big and of average quality. The Barbican and the City deserve a building of real quality here - one that respects the globally admired Barbican Cultural Centre and the rich composition the Barbican's trinity of towers."

Sir Antony Gormley | sculptor

“The Barbican was conceived as a model for good living at the very heart of our city. Chamberlin, Powell and Bon nestled gardens, a remarkable conservatory and a world-renowned arts centre into the development for the benefit of residents and visitors alike. It is a place to be comfortable, to be inspired, to be at home. Justly celebrated the world over, the Barbican's precious vision of community within a metropolis must be protected and safeguarded from the kind of raucous development that should be carefully ringfenced within the core of the City of London.”

catherine croft | director of the twentieth century society

"The proposed development at 1 Silk Street is out of scale with the surrounding area. It will have a significant negative impact on key views of the Barbican from many vantage points, whether locally or London-wide. The Barbican is one of the most important post-war residential and cultural developments in the country, if not the world, and its status as a prominent architecturally outstanding London landmark should be respected as much as the fabric itself."

Joel Sanders, New York | Professor of architecture at yale

"The Barbican is an internationally renowned example of post war Brutalism architecture and the proposed development will forever alter the views of its distinctive skyline. I object".

Kenneth Frampton CBE | barbican resident, architect, critic and historian, Emeritus Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University

“(…) the overwhelming size of the development will not only compromise the prospect from the nearby residential fabric of the barbican, but also further overpower the threshold to the main entrance of one of the most important cultural venues in the entire city.

As further proof of the gross scale development, one may cite the futile attempt on the part of the architects to relieve the negative effects of the gargantuan mass by breaking down the scale through the formalistic zigzag shifting of four-storey increments above the first six floors. This kind of gratuitous "jukebox" aesthetic does little in terms of mediating the size, let alone of improving the overall architectural quality.

It would have been possible to achieve a profitable, elegant development on this site, had not the developer insisted on maximum coverage and on enclosing the fabric in the degree zero nondescript aesthetic of repetitive, insufficiently inflected curtain walling. Under the circumstances, it would be preferable for the developer and the architects to re-design this current proposal so as to arrive at a work that is more sensitive to the environment and more amenable for the society.”

Michael Craig-Martin | Longtime barbican resident and artist

“The Barbican is internationally recognized an architectural masterpiece, a uniquely successful example of civilized urban residential living. This was acknowledged twenty five year ago when the estate was awarded Grade 2 listing confirming its unique importance and to protect its architectural integrity into the future.

Located as it is in the City, the Barbican is inevitably and naturally surrounded by tall buildings. The issue here is the immense size of the proposed development and its immediate proximity to the estate and particularly Cromwell Tower. It threatens the architectural integrity of the Barbican as surely as if it was inside its boundaries, where of course it would never be considered.

No other proposed building in the past 50 years since its construction in the 70's has encroached on the Barbican in such a way as to impact its whole character in the way this one does. The buildings to be torn down, while completely undistinguished, showed respect for the Barbican by their scale. This proposal is uniquely damaging, which is why it is being so strongly resisted and condemned.

Anyone who knows and loves the City appreciates the unique contribution of the three identical freestanding Barbican Towers. This proposal because of its height, bulk and proximity will forever damage the integrity of that skyline and the estate itself.”

Robert Elms | barbican resident, writer and broadcaster

“This mediocre, avaricious and inappropriate building steals the light and privacy of its residential neighbours. Its bulk and height are entirely overbearing both on the historic brewery buildings on Chiswell Street and most importantly on the world renowned Barbican estate. The views both from and of the estate will be ruined by this leviathan looming over the terraces of Speed House and obscuring the famed trio of towers as they grace the skyline.

A second rate office block is not what the City needs as it claims this is a vital part of the Cultural mile. (…)

Rowan more | Architecture Critic writes in the Observer

“The project swells in almost every direction: where the building it would replace is a collection of blocks of seven, 13 and 17 storeys, the proposal is a wall rising to 21 storeys. It projects over the pavement. It blocks views of the sky and will deprive neighbouring buildings of sunlight.”

“It is lumpen. It looms. (…) Its repetitive grids are interrupted by shaved-off corners that allegedly “respond to daylight and views of neighbouring buildings”. It attempts an ill-conceived homage to the Barbican’s brutalist architecture, with emphatic horizontals and pronounced overhangs, decisions that only exaggerate its bulk.”

“(…) only a radically different scheme, less aggressive and more generous, without the brutalist styling, would be worthy of the location. If One Silk Street is the harbinger of the bigger, better future promised by the City’s planners, it needs to be a genuinely outstanding work of architecture.”

Stan Allen, New York | Former Dean of Princeton University School of Architecture

 " I write as an architect and architectural editor of 40 years experience - not as a London resident, but as a concerned member of the international community. The Barbican is not only a vibrant residential community, it has historical importance as a work of architecture that resonates across time and has an international reach. It is not an exaggeration to say the world is watching (…). The new development will overwhelm the Barbican - a listed residential and cultural complex with a mixed scale and intricate detail - shadowing its public spaces, and destroying its silhouette as seen from a distance. When you drastically alter the context of a work of architecture, you do it harm, even without touching it (...)."