Hayward Gallery

Despite the misanthropy shown to Englands working people (notwithstanding the architects best intentions) as is evidenced through failed social housing projects from the 60’s the same architectural values of Brutalist Northern estates was applied to the capital, London, with very different outcomes.

A paragon of le béton brut the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank is a gem with qualities that feel contrary to the industrialised fabrication of the building. The form work of wood that defines the modular elements in Higgs and Hill’s building draws you to the natural world. It has a configuration of vertical stratigraphy cast in the concrete, the friction ridges of wood grain evoking a forest biome, the interior a rectangular cavern, inside a glimpse through time.