About

Born in the early 60’s I came into the world during one of the biggest construction booms in history Its still very visible in the background of so many films of the time, crumbling abandoned 19th century terraced houses being demolished by the wrecking ball with looming over them the relentless march of the brave new world of concrete highrises. Out with the old and in with the new.

During my teenage years growing up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex my nearest town was Southend-on-Sea. Like so many towns and cities in the 60s Southend was partially raised to the ground and all new Civic buildings, a shopping centre, office blocks and residential high rises were constructed with varied degrees of success. I hung around and used these mostly brutalist concrete buildings as a teenager and found them very appealing and futuristic, some still remain while others are now gone, all are nostalgic for me and built in what was a very optimistic time when to be “Modern” was a good thing. They definitely gave me my life long taste for modernist and brutalist architecture and lead me to eventually study Architecture and Design. My Mothers flirtation with modernist furniture in the 60s was also an influence.

Moving to London in 1981 I then experienced brutalism on a whole new level. My first visit to the Barbican centre in 1982 to very appropriately see a preview of the film Bladerunner. (Still a personal favorite) Since then The Barbican has never lost its appeal. Its got to be one of the best brutalist buildings on the planet in terms of design and build quality, but also due to listed status, the one of best preserved. Another London highlight visited, Trellick Tower by Erno Goldfinger has also endured in appeal since first exploring it at a time when it was considered a very dangerous place to live in and visit and called “the tower of terror” . It to is now listed and its reputation has now somewhat turned around, now considered a desirable place to live by architects and designers but still populated by a big percentage of social housing tenants who it was built for.

But its not just these obvious highlights that I find of interest I’m increasingly interested in finding lesser known modernist buildings both Urban & Suburban mostly from the 1950s-1970s that many overlook or do not think worthy of observation. For me its about looking at a building from the context of its design influences and original aspirations. I always like to find positives even in the face of a building or estate that has clearly failed in design, construction or in social terms. For me its about what they could have been or aspired to be but also what they could be now if given a bit of tender loving care rather than simply demolished although I’m aware some are quite simply past their sell by date.

Nostalgia, melancholy, horror, admiration and fascination are feelings I experience when going on my “Urban expeditions” as I call them. Some trigger all of these emotions! (such as Thamesmead) As I always say I like to “support an underdog” Its not just about the big bruts its the little things that I find equally of interest as well. I’m not just someone that is looking in from the outside when it comes to social housing, I have in the past lived on London social housing estates, built in the 60s, in highrise and low rise blocks experiencing the positives and negatives personally. My experience was often that the management & maintenance of the buildings by the local authorities was poor, something you can’t blame the architects for..

I find beauty in buildings and places others often find ugly or not of architectural significance. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This site is a distilled, folder themed version of my Instagram feed @midmodplus on which I post regularly.

If you wish to purchase any of my images for publication or want to contact me for any other reason please initially DM me on my Instagram feed @midmodplus oe e-mail me at: mjheyward@virginmedia.com