Barbican by Night

Barbican by Night is the title of my master thesis, developed within the Streetscape Territories design studio led by Kris Scheerlinck. The project investigates how architectural intervention can activate the public realm at night, specifically in the context of the Barbican Centre in London, a place defined by layered thresholds, strict boundaries and residual spaces.

I focused on two vacant structures located near the B100 tunnel and Golden Lane at the northern edge of the Barbican. One was transformed into a (night)club, the other into a safe(r) space, connected by a pedestrian bridge. The tunnel itself served as the central axis of the project. It is a dark, uncomfortable passage that many avoid at night due to poor lighting and a lack of program. The goal was to shift its identity from a space of avoidance to one of attraction and social interaction.

The club space was designed as an immersive environment where everything appears to move like a body in motion. With materials such as latex, aluminium, sculpted resin and layered acoustical walls, the room responds to sound, light and presence. Elements rotate, shimmer or stretch, giving the space a haute couture quality that celebrates nightlife as an embodied architectural experience.

The second room offers contrast and calm. It revolves around a rolling core made from aluminium and translucent corrugated sheets, creating a soft, layered interior. This space was conceived as a safe(r) zone, slower, more intimate and shaped by care.

Together, these two interventions aim to reframe the edge of the Barbican as a vibrant urban connector. Barbican by Night not only imagines new possibilities for underused urban voids, it also explores how architecture can choreograph rhythm, safety and collectivity in the night-time city.