Saturday 18 October 2014

Vauxhall Cross

 

 
Vauxhall Cross Building, home to Secret Intelligence Service, built by Terry Farrell, architect, and completed in 1994.  Farrell's design was influenced by 1930s industrial modernist architecture such as Bankside and Battersea Power Stations, and Mayan and Aztec religious temples. The numerous layers over which the building is laid out create 60 separate roof areas. 25 different types of glass were used. Due to its resemblance to an ancient Babylonian ziggurat, the building is sometimes referred as Babylon-on-Thames.
 
When he designed the building Farrell put trees on the top as he thought that it would house the Department of the Environment. He described the building as 'a masterful essay in layered contradiction between steel and glass'. The high point of British post modernism in architecture, 'it's a bit Art Deco, a bit Egyptian, a bit a set for Aida'.

 
 
 
 
 
 
View of the side on the Thames
 

 
 
 
 
 Side view.
 
Absolutely stunning!
 
 
 

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