By Chris Guy posted on 24 Jan 2016 in Urban

I was delighted when I heard that The National Trust was organising a series of tours to celebrate post-war brutalist architecture. I love concrete buildings – not always the most popular viewpoint I know – but I believe that buildings such as these deserve to be treasured and preserved. They are a distinctive and important and part of our heritage and it is great to see the National Trust on-side in what is becoming an increasingly divided argument.

The UEA

Brutal Utopias Tour at the UEA

The tours on offer were at The Southbank Centre in London, Park Hill in Sheffield and The University of East Anglia in Norwich. I’d always wanted to visit the UEA and offer of a guided tour combined with a chance to visit friends in Norfolk made this my destination of choice.

The tour was great, informal, friendly and informative. We were given access to some of the interiors including the Council Chamber and the Ziggurats. Unfortunately the interior of the Teaching Wall was off-limits but we had pretty much free-rein of the rest of the site.

UEA architectural model

Denys Lasdun’s original architectural model

UEA Council Chamber

The Council Chamber

The Teaching Wall

UEA Teaching Wall

The Teaching Wall

UEA Walkways

Walkways

UEA Teaching Wall

The Teaching Wall

UEA Steps

Beautifully curved Ccncrete steps

The Ziggurats

The UEA Ziggurats

Student accommodation in the Ziggurats

The UEA Ziggurats

The UEA Ziggurats

The UEA Ziggurats

Overlooking the Ziggurats

The Library

The UEA Library

None

UEA Library

The UEA Library

The UEA Library

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The Sainsbury Centre

Sainsbury Centre

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

The UEA

Brutal Utopias Tour at the UEA

I ❤️ Concrete Buildings

UEA Concrete

UEA Concrete - What's not to love?

Thanks for reading. You can view the full set of images that I shot on the visit on my Flickr stream.


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