John Madin

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John Madin is an English architect. He was born in Moseley, Birmingham, circa 1925. His company, known as John H D Madin & Partners from 1962 and the John Madin Design Group from 1968, were active in Birmingham for over 30 years. Many of the Brutalist concrete buildings his company designed have now been demolished. Societies, such as the 20th Century Society have campaigned to have many of his buildings listed, but have not yet achieved this.

1 Biography
2 Notable buildings
3 External links
4 Reference

[edit] Biography

He served in Egypt with the Royal Engineers in World War II.

Madin is the indisputable giant of post-war Birmingham architecture. Although dismissed as derivative, Madin's reinterpretations of contemporary styles can now be regarded as significant works in their own right. Madin's work has been much neglected and is not highly regarded by the current political leadership within Birmingham. Clive Dutton, the city's Director of Planning and Regeneration has described Madin's Central Library as a “concrete monstrosity”.^[1] There are currently plans to demolish the library and replace it with a new building on Centenary Square. Few voices of opposition have been raised to the proposed demolition and it seems likely that Birmingham will soon lose what some believe is its best post-war building. Ironically, just as Birmingham, once famed for its brutalist architecture, has begun to demolish many of its buildings from the 60s and 70s, so popular appreciation for the architecture of this period has increased.