Page 25 - Beyond Decommissioning

6 Beyond Decommissioning

Fig. 1.4 The “brutalist” National Theatre, Southbank, London.
Photo by M. Laraia.

from the never-ending one about contemporary art. It must be recognized that
“beauty” is a very subjective notion.
Many contemporary buildings were designed in the “brutalist” style of art. In
London Southbank, the National Theatre was designed by Sir Denys Lasdun as a
brutalist piece of architecture (1.4); it was officially opened by the Queen in 1976.
It is a publicly funded performing arts hub, comprising of three auditoriums—The Oliv-
ier, The Lyttelton, and the small Dorfman Theatre. There are also rehearsal spaces on
site, and workshops for set construction and painting, costume construction, and mak-
ing of objects used by the actors. At the time of its opening, the building was both
applauded by some as an icon of postwar architecture and mocked by others
(Prince Charles) for looking like a nuclear power plant. In opinion surveys, the theater
appears simultaneously in the top 10 “most popular” and “most hated” London build-
ings. While the comparison with a nuclear power plant can be acceptable (Fig. 1.5), it
should not necessarily imply contempt.
The Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, United Kingdom, highlights
industrial applications and achievements in the Manchester region. The museum
nucleus is the railway station—the oldest in the world—which started operation in
1830; the structures of the station are Grade I listed (see Glossary). Visitors can board
the train on established days. In the past the museum railway was linked to the national
railwork; unfortunately, the construction of a modern rail link in 2016 cut the link to
the museum and reduced the museum line to the site boundaries. A legal case was
raised to preserve the historic line, but eventually efficiency considerations prevailed;
this denotes a typical debate when taking decisions about industrial heritage, namely