Are any forum members Barbican Estate residents?

Alas not mine but have you entered Naim Audio, Lp12 and other HI-FI related terms into youtube? You may well be surprised at the home tours offered by a good few Hi-Fi fiends.

Thanks Roy. I'll give that a try. I guess Naim and brutalist architecture go hand in hand!

Roy, out of curiosity, are the buildings well enough insulted to allow you to crank up the volume?

Although not living in the Barbican I have glimpsed into a few properties as they often feature on design and architectural themed TV offerings. You can visit the estate via Barbican Living and wander along links to various categories of Barbican related information. I found the site slightly frustrating to navigate but you may well have better luck than I.

As to the sound installation properties of the dwellings I am not too sure of the building codes in operation during the '60s and '70s so can't comment.

Sorry I can't offer any more detailed information about Barbican Living but as always MrGoogle is often your best friend.

Sorry, picked you up wrong Roy. Barbican Living's a good site, I've picked up quite a lot from it, in terms of design. The estate's a stunning piece of architecture which I've visited a number of times. I was always intrigued whether volume would be an issue. As a former flat dweller, it was always a consideration when cranking things up.

There's an interesting book about the Barbican estate and its design. Living there is pretty convenient for the concert hall (just a shame the acoustic isn't better).

As for our the person with naim kit, I hope they have a decent headphone setup. From what I know of the place it has astonishingly strict rules about the amount of noise you can make and when you can make it, and residents who will complain at anything. That said, you can listen at a fairly sensible volume at sensible hours without issue.

regards, Tam

There's a good book by David Heathcote, which I'd thoroughly recommend. Barbican Living does give you a good flavour of the lifestyle and does touch on the heavily regulated culture. I mean, no hanging towels from the balcony?!

Doesn't Jimmy Hughes live there? I seem to recall it being mentioned somewhere online or in a mag.

quote:

Originally posted by Reginald Halliday:
Doesn't Jimmy Hughes live there? I seem to recall it being mentioned somewhere online or in a mag.

Well, he certainly used to. Back in the late seventies, when I bought my first system from Grahams, he was working there and invited me and some other customers back to hear his active Isobarik system. In my memory, it sounded better than my current active Isobarik system, which is of course absurd since he would have been using a 32.5/SNAPS, a NAXO/SNAPS and a non-upgraded LP12 with Grace G707 arm. I suppose his system then was starkly better than mine then; whereas I have sidled up to my current sound quality through dozens of upgrades.
He was certainly willing to crank up the volume and I'm sure the neighbours didn't mind.

I do remember an article in Hi-Fi Choice, which featured Jimmy Hughes' system, including pics of the kit in situ in his flat. It was pretty esoteric from what I remember, Ear amps, Chord DAC, additional transformers, speakers reversed with the drivers facing the wall and cardboard hoods on the top but no Naim gear, as I recall. I remember the article mentioning he lived near the Barbican tube station. Sadly I chucked out an entire back catalogue of Hi-Fi Choice 1998 - 2008 when I moved house earlier this year, so can't check!

The term would be 'neo-brutalist' its exact meaning is a bit blurred but was influenced by Le Corbusier's 'beton brute" concrete work. architecture. see alison and peter smithson for its origins. Huntstanton school I think. Besides the rough concrete textures, one of the underlying ideas of the style was "what you see is what you get" Unlike the the future style of post modernism where everything is incased in vast amounts of drywall and trim.

csls description of the architectural finish is bang-on.
I've worked in a few flats there, it's a tradesmans nightmare.
The whole place is made from poured reinforced bare-faced concrete, chasing the walls is a no no no no no!
Inside the flats is very, very quiet throughout the day and early evening, leading you to believe the thickness and solidness of the ceilings, floors and walls was a good thing. I think it's much better sound insulated than your average semi.

I liked the design of the flats. Two story high ceilings in fairly spacious living rooms with gallery landings looking down into them.
And the tower block is styled the best way it can be.

the barbican centre is a great example of great inner city architecture.