Southbank, After the Verdict
National Theatre & Southbank Centre

This architectural photography project begins with the stark first impression these buildings can produce, then moves closer. It considers concrete as something made, weathered and worn; traces of use and occupation; and the order that emerges through sustained attention.

The project brings together two distinct expressions of post-war Brutalist architecture on London’s South Bank: Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre and the adjoining Southbank Centre complex of Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery. One is singular and controlled in character; the other more collective, formed through halls, terraces, walkways and public spaces.

Both were conceived as civic spaces for culture and public life, and both continue to fulfil those roles decades later. Through slower and closer looking, this photographic study explores how architecture that can initially appear severe begins to reveal material richness, human presence and an underlying order.