John Madin: Birmingham Mod

Continuing in the vein of highlighting the modern design of yesteryear in the north of England, here is a BBC documentary from 1965 focused on the leading modernist of Birmingham, John Madin. I watched John Madin: Architect a while back and Madin's committment to building in his city has really stuck with me. Not only is the film--part of a series of documentaries called Six Men devoted to influential Britons--a glimpse of post-war England, but it's also a nice appraisal of what an architect actually does, what an architect's office looked like, and how it functioned at mid-century. On top of that, Madin seems a truly decent chap, and the half hour I spent watching the show had the feel of discovering some overlooked, soon-to-disintegrate gem.