The first entry of C20’s Building of Month was published over 20 years ago, in October 2001. Then chairman Gavin Stamp decided to write about a derelict building instrumental to the foundation of C20 as the Thirties Society in 1979 – Oliver Hill’s modernist Midland Hotel, Morecambe (1933). In 2008, this vast sea fronting complex was refurbished and restored to its original use, which continues today. Since Stamp’s article, Building of the Month has developed into an invaluable platform to document and ultimately help save countless twentieth century buildings in the UK and across the world. In the archive below, you will find over 250 entries spanning more than 30 countries.
For pitches, or to discuss ideas, please contact: joe@c20society.org.uk
Joe Mathieson is editor of Building of the Month. He is an Architectural Adviser at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust and a C20 volunteer.
Text and pictures by Gian Luca Amadei Designed by Mario de Renzi in 1929, Casetta Modello (prototype house) was part of a new suburb southwest of Rome called Garbatella. This area was specifically designed to accommodate dwellings for the factory wo...
Text by Denise Hagströmer, pictures courtesy the Swedish National Property Board Completed in 1959, this was Sweden's first large-scale modern embassy compound. It was part of the new diplomatic enclave at Chana Kyapuri, New Delhi, and covered 40,0...
Text by Sally Wainman, Secretary of the Broomhill Pool Trust Pictures courtesy of Jo Edwards (Pollard Thomas Edwards Architects), the East Anglian Daily Times and Paul Beaumont Broomhill Pool was opened to the public on April 30th 1938 with special ...
Text and Images by Annie Atkins I'm not going to go into more detail here about the history of the Isokon. There are plenty of people far more knowledgeable than me about the building, not least the Twentieth Century Society (see Casework: The Lawn ...
Melnikov House Studio 10 Krivoarbatsky Pereuolok, metro Smolenskaya (1927-1929) Text by Clem Cecil and photographs courtesy the World Monuments Fund in Britain "Ahead of its time and also behind it," was the criticism levelled at Russian architect ...
Text and photographs by Mike Ashworth, Curator (Infrastructure) and Heritage Station Advisor, London's Transport Museum The first station in Loughton was on the Eastern Counties Railway (later part of the Great Eastern Railway or GER). Opened in Aug...
Text by Harriet Atkinson, photographs by Matthew Worland © 2005 New Zealand House is London's most distinguished 1960s office block. Completed in 1963, it is an important landmark, set between the Nash terraces of Pall Mall and the Victorian theatr...
designed by Percy Rothwell 1931 Text and pictures by Christopher Warren© Designed by Percy Rothwell, a physicist by profession, 'Rysted' was built mainly between August 1930 and the spring of 1931, and is a very early example in Great Britain of a...
Text and pictures by John Deffenbaugh Scottish Provident sold its first life assurance policy in 1837, and by the late 1990s had become one of Edinburgh’s key financial services employers, with over 900 people based in the capital. In 2000, and wi...
Text and photos by Achim Schröer The Alte Pinakothek (Old Gallery) in Munich is a product of two different periods in German history and architecture: the early nineteenth century and the post-war years of the twentieth century. It is the work of b...
Text by Michael MacAmhalai Transport House is the Belfast headquarters of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union. Built in 1959, in the International Style, it has become the focal hub of the Province’s trade union movement, and on...
by Frederick Gibberd, 1936 Text by Eva Tyler and pictures by Jaime Gili Pullman Court is the first major work of the architect Frederick Gibberd and one of the first developments built in the International Modern style in Britain. The building can...
Text by Paul Zara, Conran & Partners Architects Pictures by Paul Zara and Matthew Worland Wells Coates’ Embassy Court, 1935, stands just on the Brighton side of the old border with Hove. The flats were designed to be rented by the wealthy and...
Words and pictures by Eddy Rhead Since the merger of the two television companies Carlton and Granada, rumour has been rife in Manchester as to whether or not Granada will move operations to London. If Granada, for whatever reason, does leave its ho...
Text by Hannah Shaw Images taken from the Alexander Buchanan Campbell Collection, courtesy of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) Alexander Buchanan Campbell (b. 1914)’s most significant project is t...
Formerly known as the Commercial Union Tower Text by Ian McInnes Pictures by M.J. Worland Early in 1961 the Commercial Union Assurance Company acquired the former Shell headquarters building in Great St Helens intending to refurbish it and build an e...
Text by Kenneth Powell Photographs by Guyan/Worland ©2004 Ian Nairn, the most perceptive post-war British critic of architecture writing for a broad audience, described the architect Raymond Erith (1904-1973) as "a Georgian designer - genuinely Geor...
Text and pictures by Hawksmoor Hughes Those taking a walk past no. 7 Walter’s Way in Lewisham, South-East London may well be puzzled as to the origin and style of this small three-bedroomed detached house set in a leafy suburban cul-de-sac. The arc...
Text by Alan Powers Pictures by Harriet Atkinson The reopening of the Thomas Coram Foundation earlier this year drew attention to the important civic and artistic history of the Foundling Hospital. Sadly, the original building of 1742 by Theodore Jac...
Upper Lawn Pavilion, Fonthill Estate, Tisbury, Wiltshire (1959-62) Text by Dirk van den Heuvel and Max Risselada, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology Images courtesy of the Smithson Family Archive, featured in edited by Dirk van d...
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