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.
Philip Russell Diplock & Associates, 1961 by Bruce Peter Britain’s first significant airport hotel ‘happened’ almost by accident, through a change of heart on the part of the operator, J. Lyons & Co. Founded in 1887 as a subs...
Patrick McSweeney (1962-74), by Richard Butler Set amidst the small market town of Bantry, near the site of a former mill and surrounded by one of the spate rivers which drain from the Knocknaveagh range to the south, is one of Ireland’s most un...
Frederick Gibberd and Partners, by Christine Hui Lan Manley The 1946 New Towns Act in Britain gave modern architects a chance to attempt to design a town. A planned town of a compact nature, with variety, carefully considered spaces, and a socially...
Thomas Charles Willis Pullinger, by Miriam McDonald The former Arrol-Johnston Car Co. Ltd factory, described as ‘the only virtually complete British example of a concrete framed, multi-storey daylight car factory, built in emulation of American p...
Jeremy and Fennela Dixon, by Otto Saumarez Smith Jeremy and Fennela Dixon’s local authority housing at St Mark’s Road (1975-79) for the London borough of Kensington is a vivid example of the disillusionment over modernist solutions that occurre...
R L Moorcroft & Richard Seifert and Partners, by Mark Crinson Which of London’s railway termini relates best to the surrounding city? At which of them can we most enjoy the passage from street to booking hall? In my view, there’s only one ...
Robert Potter, by Martin Walker The death last year of Robert Potter (of the firm Potter and Hare) at the age of 101 was a reminder of how unusual it is today, when high profile awards go in most cases to commercial and public projects, for an arch...
Keppie Henderson & Partners, by Ross Brown The Newbery Tower is rather less well-known than its southerly neighbour for the same client, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art building. The practice which designed the Newbery Tower...
Hong Kong Housing Department architecture division (project architect, Donald P H Liao) 1965-70, by Miles Glendinning To modern architecture heritage enthusiasts in the UK, Europe or America, public housing is an aspect of the Modern Movement th...
Sergei Serafimov, Samuel Kravets & Mark Felger, by Owen Hatherley The Gosprom (Russian) or Derzhprom (Ukrainian) building in Kharkov was designed by Sergei Serafimov (1878-1939), Samuel Kravets (1891-1966) and Mark Felger (1881-1962) in 1925, ...
Builder Willie Logan, by Ruairidh Campbell Moir Stornoway, main town of the Isle of Lewis, is formed within a natural harbour, flanked by rocky headlands - the Minch channel to the mainland beyond. These headlands are witness to much colourful h...
by Roland Jeffery Bletchley Park was at the outbreak of the Second World War in rural Buckinghamshire, beside a small sleepy railway town which was to become part of Milton Keynes. The estate had been purchased by the Government Code and Cipher S...
Leonard Manasseh & Partners, 1960-5, by Timothy Brittain-Catlin Leonard Manasseh & Partners was formed early in 1950 when Leonard Manasseh won the competition for a luxury restaurant at the Festival of Britain. The restaurant was not in the...
Barry Byrne, by Ian Tocher The city of Cork seems an unlikely place for a church designed by an American architect trained by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the giants of 20th century modernism. Considering the conservative traditions of the Irish Ca...
John Wimbleton, by Joshua Mardell The parish church of St. Paul’s, Lorrimore Square, occupies a very central position within the Brandon Estate, Southwark. The Brandon Estate was the first large scheme of rehabilitation of existing houses combine...
Artist Constructor, by Rachel Williams Four miles south of Bristol one might be surprised to stumble upon a group of houses such as those at Flax Bourton. But there they stand, bold and bright, sculptural, strange and stark, yet somehow at home in ...
UPACE Limited, 1962-72, by Barnabas Calder Even by the high standard of Canada’s postwar campuses York University, Toronto, has some magnificent Brutalist architecture. Part of a huge expansion in Canadian higher education, York was founded in 19...
Heinz Rau and David Reznik, 1957, by Timothy Brittain-Catlin Very few modern synagogues have attracted the interest of architects worldwide, and in Israel itself there is possibly only one that has achieved this distinction. The tiny Israel Goldste...
Naval Architect: James Ayers; Builder: Schichau Unterweser, Bremerhaven, 1980, by Bruce Peter Modern cross-Channel ferries, which carry a large proportion of goods imported from our European neighbours, are among the most ingenious examples of cont...
Yekaterina Maximova, by Clementine Cecil The reinforced concrete Maslennikov factory canteen (1930-1932) by architect Yekaterina Maximova has a ground plan in the form of a hammer and sickle. This was one of the earliest experiments in the use of st...
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