Taking a modern view - Architecture


	A typically uninspiring low-rise modern office block, perhaps. But move in close with a wide lens, get the sun reflecting off those panels and suddenly the whole thing starts to take off.

Prince Charles' opinion of much of modern architecture as a series of monstrous carbuncles is way wide of the mark in my book. How can he possibly say that when the type of design he espouses is little more than a sentimental pastiche of previous styles and materials, all cobbled together in an attempt at chummy homeliness. There's something terribly phoney about using yesterday's technologies, materials and low-rise scale in this day and age.

Hurriedly climbing off my soap box, yes I must admit there are any number of recently-erected characterless edifices crushed by budgetary or regulatory constraints, or worse, a lack of imagination on behalf of their creators. By the same token, there are countless examples of stunning modern buildings and structures, which reveal creative minds at work and impressively fresh solutions to the perennial problems of how to create interesting spaces for living, travelling, work and leisure.


Another way to portray the massive bulk and rectangular character of a modern building is to contrast it with something lighter and more natural - a nearby tree's foliage.

Technical advances in structural materials such as pre-stressed or reinforced concrete and steel, plus modular design approaches have had a big bearing on the way new buildings can be erected, and the heights they can be built up to. Though September 11 2001 revealed that not every eventuality had been taken into account, we have entered a new era of construction possibilities and with it the freedom to express ourselves in a new architectural vein. Now form really does follow function, with engineering disciplines forming an alluring partnership with creative instincts in the minds of the very best architects.


	This office block is only about 20 stories high, but when viewed from a worm's eye viewpoint and with a wide lens it appears to rise up to the heavens in dynamic fashion.

One of the many positive elements I find in good modern architecture is the expression of modern materials in an artistic manner. Think of the Lloyds building in London, for instance, seemingly with its insides all over the outside. Or how about the Thames Barrier with its row of shimmering sculptures there to hold back the tides. Even the MI5 building also on the Thames has a certain monolithic charm all of its own, and I also feel the snaking new railway terminus at Waterloo has considerable merit.

Outside the capital there's plenty of enterprising and imaginative new work too, as I've witnessed in recent trips to Glasgow, Carlisle, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol. Nor is great architecture confined to the major conurbations - what about the brilliant Eden project in rural Cornwall/Devon, with its dazzling lightweight geodesic roof structure transmitting light to thousands of rare trees and plants.


Even the humble shopping centre can take on pleasing three-dimensional forms and contain interesting materials when designed with style. Here escalators swoop up and down while a crowing dome of glass floods the whole well with light.

A detail from the exterior of Coventry Cathedral. There aren't too many modern cathedrals built, so check one out if you live nearby.

These are some of the jewels of modern British architecture, well known even to the average man in the street. But there are fascinating if less famous buildings springing to life virtually wherever you look, and it's up to us to show them off to best advantage. A whole new vocabulary of building expression is being erected in our towns and cities as we speak, and this affords the architectural photographer incredible opportunities to express themselves. There are limitless new shapes, spaces, surfaces and treatments to get our teeth into.

With older buildings such as a medieval cathedral for instance you might look to portray intricate detail and workmanship as well as a sense of the enormous weight of the structure. To capture the essence of an Art Deco building you would probably concentrate on capturing its elegance and flourishing decoration. But modern buildings tend to revolve around geometrical shapes and a repetition of pattern.


	Keep a look out for views through structures to other buildings, as they can make for unusual compositions.

Take a typical office blocks with a vertical curtain of bronzed reflective glass - the same glazed panel is duplicated countless times to create a vast wall. If the photographer adopts a distant viewpoint at right angles to this surface, the pattern is all too obvious and there is little visual interest. But move in close so that there's a sense of the wall sweeping away into the distance and the image starts to become interesting.

Likewise when confronted with a geometric structure, it's a case of working your way round the building and seeking out those viewpoints that best capture the ever changing abstract shapes presented from different angles. A photographer should wear out plenty of shoe leather and bear in mind the range of lenses they have at their disposal. Abstract shapes can look dramatic from up close thanks to distortion, or they can look equally impressive from a distance when apparently compressed by the power of a long telephoto. As always the foreground and background need attention as well as the main subject.

Another quality I admire in modern buildings, thanks to strong but lightweight forms of construction, is the ability to see through one structure to another. A skeletal, transparent or translucent wall or roof often permits a tantalising glimpse of something further on, if you have the eye and the wit to see these things. People may wonder what the hell you are up to, and often security staff will come and have a word in your ear, but keep looking and you'll often be rewarded by a great composition of one building forming a frame or a view for another.

Thanks to the great height of many modern structures, their graphic possibilities are almost endless. You can frame a composition where the skyline is a patchwork of dizzy rooftops, which can look great at sunrise or sunset. Or if you prefer concentrate on a single skyscraper, and from near its base let the walls thrust up into a dynamic convergence of vertical lines.

Then there are those buildings you haven't a clue what they house. Come to think of it, half the time with modern architecture, you are in the dark as to what the exact function of the building you are gazing at actually is. Whereas in previous centuries things were more straightforward, with a thatched roof indicating a cottage-type domestic dwelling, rows and rows of windows a mill, or a flying buttress shape the soaring heights of a cathedral. But now things are not so obvious, and on many occasions you are left to guess what goes on behind those dazzling walls. Hey, but that's half the fun.

In the search for effective graphic images, don't be afraid to crop severely. Here's a detail of the famous stained-glass window at Coventry Cathedral, plus an overall shot for comparison.


	Have a guess at the function of this building with its shiny topped towers. No its not some industrial structure, but part of a university faculty. How bizarre!