David Altrath frames a hanging jungle within a brutalist icon
by David Altrath photo series conceives of the Barbican Conservatory not simply as a greenhousebut as a spatial paradox embedded in one of London’s most incongruous architectural ensembles. Designed in 1982 as part of the Barbican Centre, the conservatory unfolds as a floating ecosystem where over 1,500 plant species occupy a rigid Brutalist exposed frame concrete, steeland glass.
What emerges through Altrath’s lens is not opposition in the obvious sense, but a gradual negotiation. The heavy geometry of the Barbican steps becomes a scaffold for growth, with vines, shrubs and trees occupying ledges and gaps as if they were always meant to be there. Rough concrete surfaces act as a substrate for life rather than a boundary against it. Plants collapse over railings, roots anchor in shallow beds, and foliage thickens in corners where light and moisture accumulate.
all images from David Altrath
inside the barbican conservatory, light and space development shape
Daylight enters diffusely and unevenly through the glazed roof above, leveling the severity of the structural grid while producing pockets of shadow and brightness that shift throughout the day. Photographer based in Hamburg Altrath’s photographs lean into this ambiguity, where visibility is partial and depth is multi-layered.
Corridors narrow into shadowed passages before opening into brighter clearings. Reflections in the glass merge with the foliage, while the city beyond becomes faint. The conservatory behaves like a suspended microclimate, cut off from the urban tempo outside. Movement within the conservatory is not linear or monumental. Instead, it’s intimate and riveting. Narrow walkways weave through dense planting, occasionally rising to overlook lower terraces before folding into the vegetation. There is no single advantage, only a sequence of some views. Altrath frames these routes as spatial experiences rather than documentation. The camera lingers on thresholds, angles and moments of compression, emphasizing how the body navigates between architecture and development.
The Barbican is often framed by its scale, its density and its unwarranted materiality. Within the same system, a different rhythm emerges, defined by growth, maintenance and seasonal change. The conservatory reveals the capacity of Brutalist architecture to host life, absorb time and evolve beyond its original intent.
Dense planting wraps the conservatory’s concrete terraces, turning the structure into a habitat
tiered balconies dissolve into foliage as vegetation overtakes the architectural grid
Diffused daylight passes through the roof glazing, softening the mass of the structure
paths weave through dense greenery
