Lauderdale Tower PopArc

This framed plaster relief is inspired by Lauderdale Tower, the westernmost of the Barbican Estate's three towers — designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, completed in 1974, and the first thing you see of the Barbican when you step out of the Underground onto Aldersgate Street.

Read the full Lauderdale Tower architecture guide

 

The Barbican's saw-tooth tower, in three-dimensional relief

 

Lauderdale Tower's character comes from a single detail repeated forty times: the thick, upswept concrete balustrade that runs round every floor. Stacked up a 123-metre shaft on a triangular plan, those balconies give the tower its serrated edge; above them, penthouses step in and up to form a jagged crown.

This wall piece captures the tower as seen from the street:

• the full height of the shaft, balcony on balcony
• the saw-tooth profile of the balustrades
• the broken, stepped crown of the penthouse floors

Cast in plaster and set against a coloured ground, the tower stands proud of its background in real relief, so each balcony edge throws its own small shadow as the light crosses the wall.

 

Why Lauderdale Tower works as a PopArc wall piece

 

The tower translates well into wall-mounted form because its identity is carried by:

• repetition — one balcony profile, forty times, exactly spaced
• silhouette — the serrated edge and stepped top read from any distance
• texture over detail — the Barbican's hand-hammered concrete is a surface, not a pattern, and plaster carries that quality naturally

Reduced to a relief, the tower loses nothing that matters and gains a graphic clarity the real thing only has against a clear sky.

 

Craft, framing, and finish

 

Each Lauderdale Tower PopArc is cast in plaster from a mould taken from our master pattern and finished by hand in our Sussex studio, then set in a plaster frame of roughly A4 size with a felt back and hanging hole. The relief is left in a natural plaster finish, so depth and shadow rather than colour articulate the architecture.

Choose from six background colours — Flame, Island Paradise, Kale, Lapis Blue, Pink Yarrow and Primrose Yellow. The blues and greens recall the lake and gardens at the tower's foot; the warmer grounds pick up the golden tone the concrete takes in low afternoon sun.

The piece sits naturally in:

• hallways, landings and stairwells, where a strong vertical shape works best
• studies and studios with an interest in postwar architecture
• any flat, Barbican or otherwise, whose owner has an opinion about concrete

It appeals to Barbican residents and admirers, architects, and anyone who has looked up from Aldersgate Street.

 

A Brutalist landmark as wall-mounted art

 

The Barbican was voted London's ugliest building in 2003, two years after it was listed Grade II. Few buildings have made the journey from derided to admired so completely, and Lauderdale Tower — the one the architects put nearest the street — is where most people's change of heart begins. On the wall, in plaster, it is the version that was always easy to love: a clean serrated shaft and a crown, held in a single shape.

 

Product details

 

• Subject: Lauderdale Tower, Barbican Estate, City of London EC2Y
• Architects: Chamberlin, Powell and Bon; engineers Ove Arup and Partners
• Architectural style: Brutalism
• Completed: 1974
• Height: 123 m (404 ft), 44 storeys
• Listed: Grade II, 2001, as part of the Barbican Estate
• Format: Framed PopArc wall relief, six background colours
• Designed and made by: Chisel & Mouse

 

Learn more about Lauderdale Tower

 

For the full story — the triangular plan, the hand-hammered concrete, the three towers compared and where to see Lauderdale from — see our in-depth guide:

Lauderdale Tower Architecture: The Barbican's Western Tower

Address: Lauderdale Tower, Barbican, London, EC2Y 8BY, England