An envy-inducing glimpse inside the homes of Barbican residents

Date
15 November 2016

It is a dream of many to one day reside in London’s Barbican Centre. Upon visiting the estate you will undoubtedly spend half your time with a craned neck, attempting to get a glimpse of the lucky residents behind its brutalist walls. Thankfully, design and brand development agency Each has created Barbican – Residents, a publication interweaving character profiles and architecture, for the ultimate nosey interior snooper.

The book itself was born out of a serendipitous meeting between a blogger and a designer living in the same building. “The book started life as a blog by the photographer Anton Rodriguez,” the studio explains. “Himself a resident, he was intrigued by the mix of people living in the estate. As part of the project he made contact with Tom Munckton, one of the partners at Each, about photographing his flat.”

This developed into Anton asking Tom to design the book once enough material was collated. The Barbican Centre agreed to the publishing and with a foreword by design writer Katie Treggiden, the result provides “historic and social context for what had turned into a comprehensive volume about life on the estate for a variety of residents”.

For the book’s design, Each was conscious that the publication was not a project “about brutalist architecture, it was very much a study of people and how, given the same starting module, each resident has chosen to live". Each contributor’s name is debossed on the cover of the book, “as if indelibly marked in the concrete itself”. For the ultimate interior fanatic Anton has also provided a visual glossary praising “fixtures, fittings and services that are anything but common in modern urban living”.

Overall the book is such a celebration of the estate, it’s envy-inducing in the best sense of the word.

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Each: Barbican – Residents

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Each: Barbican – Residents

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Each: Barbican – Residents

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Each: Barbican – Residents

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Each: Barbican – Residents

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Each: Barbican – Residents

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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