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Concrete Dreams at the Farrell Centre

Concrete Dreams is an eight-month programme of events running at Newcastle’s Farrell Centre, setting out to explore the ways in which Tyneside was transformed during 1960s and 1970s, and how we might now reimagine the city today.

Running until June 2025, the project includes exhibitions, events, teaching and research to ‘explore the ideals and aspirations that drove these transformations and the ways they continue to shape how we use and understand the city’.

We were happy to contribute a number of archive pieces to be included in the supporting ‘Brasília of the North' exhibition. This included extracts from our Metro Design Guide and strategy, which set out to ensure consistency across both old and new stations. Also, a selection of original photos showing various station construction stages and the Metro’s public opening. This supporting project to the overall programme sets out to ‘explore the ideas, personalities and broader social, cultural and political climate that underpinned the aspirations to transform Newcastle into a modernist city’. 

We also loaned our model of Jesmond Library - ‘a building that signalled modernity on a local level’ - to ‘The Metro Studio’, a room dedicated to the Metro system and showcasing the transformation of the city’s transport infrastructure amongst developing home, leisure and cultural buildings.

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Concrete dreams exhibition farrell centre newcastle tyne and wear metro display 3x2

As published in the Architects’ Journal (Newcastle revisits its 1960s Brutalist vision) exhibition review, Fran Williams noted FaulknerBrowns’ historic contribution towards the Tyne and Wear Metro system in the early 80s as “perhaps the era's most transformative project for Newcastle”. Alongside Margaret Calvert’s iconic typeface, we’re so proud to see our Building Design Guide from 1980 continue to form the recognisable face of the Metro today.

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Senior Associate Architect Daniel Burn has also contributed to the programme as a speaker during 'Vertical Cities', part of the ongoing live talk series in support of the wider project. This panel discussion tackled some of the big questions and key issues around Tyneside’s 1960s and 1970s transformations. This included the impact of the 1960's planning ideals to separate people from cars and streets and for homes to be arranged vertically, bringing in to question Wilfred Burns and T. Dan Smiths’ controversial reimagination of Newcastle as the ‘Brasília of the North’, as explored further in the ongoing exhibition.

Concrete Dreams is open at The Farrell Centre until June 2025, with ‘The Fight for Byker and Other Stories’ installation opening in February and plenty more talks, guided walks, tours and city drawing masterclasses on the way.

Photography by Colin Davison Photography