London

What was the Barbican originally intended for, and what is it for now?

It was intended to fill a large hole in the City of London after the war – the largest piece of urban regeneration in the UK. It was built to provide arts facilities for local residents, but I don’t think the people who planned it had any idea that it would become an artistic centre on the scale that it has.

How well does it achieve its aims?

I’d like to think it does so pretty well; it’s one of the world’s great cultural institutions, and that’s in the words of other people, not me. The most encouraging sign is the audiences; we’re getting more people coming, and more people coming more often. But I’m wary of pats on the back.
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The derelict postwar site of the future centre

Why do you think the Barbican provokes so much debate among Londoners?

Whenever there are polls of people’s most-loved and most-hated buildings, the Barbican tends to appear in both. I think that’s great; the building itself provokes debate. That goes through to the work we put on: challenging, innovative work that will provoke a debate, which is a good thing.

If you were allowed to make one change to the architecture, what would it be?

Well, we’ve already done it: we’ve put on a front door, which has been successful and well-received. I suppose now that we’ve strengthened and clarified the northern aspect of the building, I’d like to do the same for the east, west and south.

What are your favourite buildings in London?

I like a mixture of classical and modern. I like St Paul’s, Kenwood House, and St Pancras. I also like Richard Rogers’ buildings, Nick Grimshaw’s Waterloo station, and Foster’s Gherkin has done more than any other building to redefine London’s skyline. The Barbican took 20 years to be accepted. I think the British can be ambivalent about new architecture, which means compromises are made; you end up with buildings that say nothing about the time when they were made.

Has the building ever surprised you in the way it’s affected a work of art there?

Yes. In our first season without the RSC, Deborah Warner put on ‘The Turn of the Screw’ (1997). She stripped out everything behind the proscenium, so the whole backstage area was opened up. It gave it an epic quality. Deborah did a similar thing with ‘Julius Caesar’.