A barrier in Gateshead, UK, which acts as a "gateway" marker, a vehicle barrier and a pedestrian filter. Reminiscent of security turnstiles found in the lobbys of large corporations.
In her book Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First Century City (Penguin, 2009). The journalist Anna Minton argues that many new urban developments and privately owned public spaces in the UK - like Bishopsgate, Liverpool 1, Canary Wharf and others, are designed around the paradigm of the corporate office interior or workplace - particularly todays financial trading floors. This design idea has spread to many cities in the UK that have no financial industry or large corporate headquarters. Her argument is reinforced by many of the designs in this archive.