Brutal Utopias – The UEA

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 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.

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