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Londoner’s Diary: Isokon Flats   >

Londoner’s Diary: Economist Building

22 October 2011 By Michael Ellis Leave a Comment

Though good, the Economist Building – created by Alison and Peter Smithson in the early 1960s – arguably punches above its weight in architectural importance. What I do like about it though is the use of a nougat-like, fossil-rich Portland stone, here used as cladding in imitation of a column – but not dirtying its feet by doing anything so pedestrian as touching the ground.

The building features in two films of the 1960s: a mime troop takes a spin around the plaza at the beginning of Antonioni’s Blow-Up, and Oliver Reed takes an axe to a desk in one of the offices in Michael Winner’s I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘is Name, before joining Orson Welles on the roof for a spot of urban golf.

Economist_Smithson-2-copy

Filed Under: Blog, Londoner's Diary Tagged With: Alison and Peter Smithson, Economist Building, Londoner's Diary

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