The 23,00-square-foot glass-panelled roof over the Barbican Center’s vast conservatory is at risk of caving in.
Safety nets hang in the warm air above the 1,800 species of tropical, subtropical, and temperate plants and trees to catch any falling shards. Built in the 1980s and in keeping with the arts center’s brutalist aesthetic, the conservatory is no longer fit for purpose. It’s therefore top priority for the Barbican’s upcoming $240-million revamp.
Plans for the extensive renovation were released last week. They’re currently under public consultation. Engineering work in the bowels of the Barbican, four stories below the conservatory, is also urgently needed. There lies a room a third of the size of London’s 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium. Forty-year-old pipes, control panels, and massive water tanks, all waiting to be replaced or removed, make it feel like a time warp.
Architects Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio have been tasked with returning some of the vision of the Barbican’s original designers to its labyrinthine corridors.
They want to rip out a staircase, turn one of the concrete shafts into an elevator to improve accessibility, and add more toilets so the arts center’s visitors don’t have to walk down three flights of stairs to relieve themselves. The Barbican’s lake will be repaved because water is leaking onto the Metropolitan metro line below. New fountains and seating will also be added.
If the plans are green-lighted, work should start in 2027. The City of London Corporation, the local authority which governs the capital’s financial district, is stumping up the almost quarter of a billion dollars, which represents about 80 percent of the total funds needed for the first five-year phase of the renovation.
The City of London’s businesses will be tapped up for the rest of the cash as part of a fundraising campaign to go live later this year.
This facelift comes as the Barbican has shaken up its top brass over the last year. Philipps Simpson, who was the Victoria & Albert Museum’s director of design, is the new director of buildings and renewal, Devyani Saltzman joined from the Art Gallery of Ontario as the new director for arts and participation, while David Farnsworth is the interim CEO.
