For our Inspiration series, staff at The Modern House were asked to list the location, film, painting, building, or piece of music that first inspired their interest in Modernism.

For Christian, our Head of Sales, it was the late-90s landscape of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Christian says:

‘I moved to Newcastle to study in the latter half of the 1990s, and it was my first time living in a city proper. The decaying industrial buildings were being converted into art and culture venues, such as the Baltic Flour Mill, or apartment blocks (think The Turnbull Building and Swan House). Some of these had a higher degree of success than others, but the regeneration of the city as a whole was thriving.

The buildings which really exposed me to the beauty of Brutalism were those of the Owen Luder Partnership – Derwent Tower (the ‘Dunston Rocket’) and Trinity Square (the ‘Get Carter car park’) both of which have now sadly been demolished.

The city has a disused pedway which I love, and MEA House was a building I walked past everyday on my way to Lectures. Newcastle City Library, the Civic Centre, The Byker Wall, St James’ Park, the Engineering Research Station in Killingworth – I could go on forever!’