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© 2005 Ian Kerr, All Rights Reserved.
Caption
Coventry’s 1950s & 60s architectural rebirth, after WW2 bomb decimation, produced one of the first pedestrianised town centres and gave rise to a unique Cathedral featuring the ruins of the old building alongside a new Basil Spence creation, unusually orientated along a North-South axis. In recent years, during work to build a public space project called the Phoenix Initiative; short listed for the prestigious Stirling Prize for architecture, the ruins of a third, the original, cathedral were discovered; Henry VIII’s papal animosity being responsible for its destruction. Coventry is the home of the British motor industry, now all but gone; Jaguar, Triumph, Rover, Daimler, Alvis and more, even Massey Ferguson, have left the city or no longer exist. But heritage is preserved in the magnificent Coventry Transport Museum, home to land speed record-breaking Thrust 2.
The City’s redevelopment continues apace: West Orchards Shopping Centre is one of the new malls offering a quality retail experience.
Conventional photography can only touch this space, giving a “likeness” in one direction or another, unable to record the feel of the environment. VR does the whole job, puts the viewer inside the building on a Virtual Reality experience; able to see not just all round but up to the dome and down to the lower level, almost as good as being there.
This dusk view gives a colourful impression, the blue of the dome and sky being a significant balance to the warm internal glow. A sunlit daylight VR, alive with shoppers, can be seen here and an extraordinary “flat” abstraction from this spherical pan is available here.
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