Spence commissioned a number of major artworks for the cathedral including a large sculpture of Archangel Michael triumphing over the Devil by Jacob Epstein, abstract stained glass windows by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens and a tapestry by Graham Sutherland believed at one time to be the largest in the world. The key example of post-war modernism stands alongside the ruins of its Gothic predecessor – a demand that only Spence made among the 200-plus architects in the design competition. In 1962 the Queen attended the consecration of a modern cathedral in Coventry that was designed by Scottish architect Basil Spence to replace the previous 14th-century cathedral, which had been destroyed in bombing during world war two. UK heritage campaign group the Twentieth Century Society was unhappy with the renovation, which saw the exterior kept intact but the interior completely rebuilt, claiming that a "magnificent post-war masterpiece" had been lost.Ĭoventry Cathedral, Coventry, England, by Basil Spence (1962) The modernist concrete building, set under a copper-covered, hyperbolic parabaloid roof, was converted into the Design Museum by OMA and John Pawson in 2016. The Commonwealth Institute building was designed by Robert Matthew and Stirrat Johnson Marshall from RMJM to hold a permanent exhibition informing the British public about life in the rest of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Institute, London, England, by RMJM (1962) Photo courtesy of the Twentieth Century Society The Queens Building would later be incorporated into Terminal 2 at the renamed Heathrow airport and was demolished in 2009 to make way for the Foster + Partners-designed terminal. The Queen would later return to the airport in 2008 to open the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners-designed Terminal 5. "We may say with pride that ranks among the foremost in the world," she said at the opening. The Queen inaugurated the modernist central passenger terminal at London Airport in 1955 including the Queens Building designed by English architect Frederick Gibberd, which contained the main passenger entrance to the airport along with airline offices, a cinema, roof gardens and a "grill room". The Queen's Building, Heathrow, England, by Frederick Gibberd (1955) Read on for 20 of the most significant pieces of architecture officially opened by the Queen, including five museums, two airports, a cathedral, an opera house and no fewer than four parliament buildings.
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