The scale of the uninterrupted angular planes creates a sublime urbanscape.

Lasdun described the terraces where the inside and outside spaces merged as the “geological strata” of his architecture of “urban landscape”.

He saw the open spaces inside and around the building as a fourth theatre (with the city as a backdrop)

Beautiful Brutalism (National Theatre I)

The architecture choreographs the shadows as the sun moves across the facade, animating the concrete. Thus the building also generates its own theatre. Speeded up you can see the dance of the shadow; this is not an accidental secondary beauty but would have been foreseen by Lasdun with his architectural modelling. Speeded up further in negative you can see the shadow shapes transforming in space.

The Shadow & Negative Shadow Studies for animation

Positive Shadow Studies for animation

I have made several animations both in positive and negative at different times during the year. One formed part of the exhibition at the Wolfson Gallery and was projected on internal concrete walls creating a concrete palimpsest.