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Brutalist architecture flourished from 1951 to 1975, having descended from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century.[1] The term ‘Nybrutalism’ (New Brutalism) was originally coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund in 1950 to describe Villa Göth in Uppsala.[2] Architects Alison and Peter Smithson introduced the term “Brutalism” to the English-speaking world in the early 1950s.[3] It became more widely used after British architectural critic Reyner Banham titled his 1955 essay, The New Brutalism, using the term “Brutalism” to identify both an ethic and aesthetic style.[4] In the same essay, Reynor Banham also associated the term with Art Brut and Le Corbusier’s béton brut, meaning raw concrete in French, for the first time.[2][5][6] Reinforced concrete is the most commonly recognized building material of Brutalist architecture but other materials such as brick, glass, steel, and rough-hewn stone may also be used.
Brutalism began to be favoured by with governmental and institutional clients, with numerous examples in English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia), Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy), the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc (Slovakia, Bulgaria), and places as disparate as Japan, India, Brazil, the Philippines, and Israel. Examples are typically massive in character (even when not large), fortress-like, with a predominance of exposed concrete construction, or in the case of the “brick Brutalists”, ruggedly combine detailed brickwork and concrete. There is often an emphasis on graphically expressing in the external elevations and in the whole-site architectural plan the main functions and people-flows of the buildings. Brutalism became popular for educational buildings (especially university buildings), but was relatively rare for corporate projects, which largely preferred International Style. Brutalism became favoured for many government projects, rectangle tower blocks (high-rise housing), and shopping centres.
In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of some 1930s and 1940s architecture. In one critical appraisal by Banham, Brutalism was posited not as a style, but as the expression of an atmosphere among architects of moral seriousness. “Brutalism” as a term was not always consistently used by critics; architects usually avoided using it altogether.
Contents
1 History
2 Characteristics
3 Designers
4 On university campuses
5 Criticism and reception
6 Brutalism today
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
History
Villa Göth in Kåbo, Uppsala, Sweden. “Brutalism” was used for the first time to describe this house.
The term “Brutalism” was originally coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund to describe Villa Göth, a modern brick home in Uppsala, designed in 1949 by his contemporaries Bengt Edman and Lennart Holm. He originally used the Swedish term Nybrutalism (New Brutalism), which was picked up by a group of visiting English architects, including Michael Ventris. In England, the term was further adopted by architects Alison and Peter Smithson.[2][7] The Smithsons’ Hunstanton School completed in 1954 in Norfolk, and the Sugden House completed in 1955 in Watford, represent ground zero for Brutalism in the United Kingdom. The term gained increasingly wider recognition when the British architectural historian Reyner Banham used it in the title of both his 1955 essay, The New Brutalism, and 1966 book, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?, to characterize a somewhat recently established cluster of architectural approaches, particularly in Europe.[7]
The best known proto-Brutalist architecture is the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, in particular his 1952 Unité d’habitation in France and the 1953 Secretariat Building (Palace of Assembly) in Chandigarh, India. Brutalism gained considerable momentum in the United Kingdom during the mid-twentieth century, as economically depressed (and World War II-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centres, and government buildings.
Combined with the socially progressive intentions behind Brutalist streets in the sky housing such as Corbusier’s Unité, Brutalism was promoted as a positive option for forward-moving, modern urban housing.
Characteristics
Trellick Tower, London, 1966–1972, designed by Ernő Goldfinger, is a Grade II* listed building.
Boston City Hall is a controversial and prominent example of the Brutalist architectural style. It was designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles (architects) with Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty (architects) and Lemessurier Associates (engineers).
Brutalist buildings are usually formed with repeated modular elements forming masses representing specific functional zones, distinctly articulated and grouped together into a unified whole. Concrete is used for its raw and unpretentious honesty, contrasting dramatically with the highly refined and ornamented buildings constructed in the elite Beaux-Arts style. Surfaces of cast concrete are made to reveal the basic nature of its construction, revealing the texture of the wooden planks used for the in-situ casting forms. Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabions. Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be considered Brutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles including Constructivism, International Style, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism.
Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building’s functions—ranging from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of the building. In the Boston City Hall, designed in 1962, the strikingly different and projected portions of the building indicate the special nature of the rooms behind those walls, such as the mayor’s office or the city council chambers. From another perspective, the design of the Hunstanton School included placing the facility’s water tank, normally a hidden service feature, in a prominent, visible tower.
Brutalism as an architectural philosophy was often also associated with a socialist utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style. This style had a strong position in the architecture of European communist countries from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, USSR, Yugoslavia).[8] In Czechoslovakia Brutalism was presented as an attempt to create a “national” but also “modern socialist” architectural style.
Designers
Habitat 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is a Brutalist building.[9]
In Australia, examples of the Brutalist style are Robin Gibson’s Queensland Art Gallery, Ken Woolley’s Fisher Library at the University of Sydney (his State Office Block is another), the High Court of Australia by Colin Madigan in Canberra, and WTC Wharf (World Trade Centre in Melbourne).[10] John Andrews’s government and institutional structures in Australia also exhibit the style.
Canada possesses numerous examples of Brutalist architecture. In the years leading to the 100th anniversary of the Confederation in 1967, the Federal Government financed the construction of many of public buildings. Major Brutalist examples, not all built as part of the Canadian Centennial, include the Grand Théâtre de Québec, the Édifice Marie-Guyart (formerly Complex-G), Hôtel Le Concorde, and much of the Laval University campus in Quebec City; Habitat 67, Place Bonaventure, the Maison de Radio-Canada, and several metro stations on the Montreal Metro’s Green Line; the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown; the National Arts Center in Ottawa; the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston; Robarts Library, Rochdale College in Toronto; the church of the Westminster Abbey in British Columbia.[citation needed]
In the United Kingdom, architects associated with the Brutalist style include Ernő Goldfinger, wife-and-husband pairing Alison and Peter Smithson, some of the work of Sir Basil Spence, the London County Council/Greater London Council Architects Department, Owen Luder, John Bancroft, and, arguably perhaps, Sir Denys Lasdun, Sir Leslie Martin, Sir James Stirling and James Gowan with their early works.
In the United States Paul Rudolph and Ralph Rapson are both noted Brutalists.[11] Evans Woollen III, a pacesetter among architects in the Midwest, is credited for introducing the Brutalist and Modernist architecture styles to Indianapolis, Indiana.[12] Walter Netsch is known for his Brutalist academic buildings. Marcel Breuer was known for his “soft” approach to the style, often using curves rather than corners.
Buffalo City Court Building, built 1971–1974 by Pfohl, Roberts, and Biggie, is a classic example of Brutalism’s imposing aesthetic.
Western City Gate, Belgrade, Serbia.
In Argentina Clorindo Testa created the Bank of London and South America headquarters, one of the best examples of the 1950s.
The Istituto Marchiondi Spagliardi in Baggio, Milan, by Vittoriano Viganò (1957).[13] Photo by Paolo Monti.
In Italy, Vittoriano Viganò designed the Istituto Marchiondi in Milan in 1957,[13] and the BBPR studio built the Torre Velasca in 1958. More recent Modernists such as I. M. Pei, Gottfried Böhm and Tadao Ando also have designed notable Brutalist works. In Trieste, the main building of the Galileo Galilei high school (1969–71), as well as the residential housing complex known as “il Quadrilatero” (1969–82), in the district of Rozzol Melara are iconic representations of the brutalist style. Other examples include the Enrico Nordio art institute and the Temple of Monte Grisa.
In Brazil, the style is associated with the Paulista School and is evident in the works of Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006).
In the Philippines, Leandro Locsin designed massive Brutalist structures, including the Tanghalang Pambansa and the Philippine International Convention Center.
In New Zealand, Sir Miles Warren and his practice Warren & Mahoney led the development of the so-called “Christchurch School” of architecture, which fused Brutalist architectural style with Scandinavian and Japanese values of straightforwardness. Warren’s style has influenced New Zealand’s public architecture.
In Serbia (then Yugoslavia), Božidar Janković was a representative of the so-called “Belgrade School of residence”, identifiable by its functionalist relations on the basis of the flat[14][15] and elaborated in detail the architecture. His architectural structures, built more than four decades ago,[when?] are in better physical condition today than many buildings which were constructed years later.[when?][citation needed]
Architects whose work reflects certain aspects of the Brutalist style include Louis Kahn. Architectural historian William Jordy says that although Kahn was “[o]pposed to what he regarded as the muscular posturing of most Brutalism”, some of his work “was surely informed by some of the same ideas that came to momentary focus in the Brutalist position.”[16]
On university campuses
Denys Lasdun’s halls of residence at the University of East Anglia
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many campuses in North America were undergoing rapid expansions and, as a result (due to the associated low cost and ease of quick construction) there are a significant number of Brutalist buildings at American and Canadian universities, beginning with Paul Rudolph’s 1958 Yale Art and Architecture Building and the 1965 Art Museum at Colgate. Rudolph’s design for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is an example of an entire campus designed from scratch in the Brutalist style. Walter Netsch designed the entire University of Illinois-Chicago Circle Campus (now the East Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago) under a single, unified Brutalist design.[17] John M. Johansen’s and Evans Woollen III’s Brutalist-style Clowes Memorial Hall, a performing arts facility that opened in 1963 and on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, was praised for its bold and dramatic design.[18] In 1964, Brigham Young University inaugurated the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center, which features a largely Brutalist style of architecture.The University of Chicago’s Joseph Regenstein Library, one of the largest libraries in the world, is designed in the Brutalist style. The Northwestern University Library is also designed in a brutalist style and very good example of this architecture. The University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus features several Brutalist buildings, including Ralph Rapson’s performing arts venue, Rarig Center, one of Rapson’s most important works and the best example of Brutalism in the Twin Cities.[19] The University of Louisville Belknap Campus has several Brutalist buildings, including the Bingham Humanities Building and the Interfaith Center. The Andrews Building at the University of Toronto Scarborough was built in a Brutalist architectural style and completed in 1964. In 1965, Desert Modern architect E. Stewart Williams was commissioned to design a new campus for the San Bernardino Community College District. Construction of Crafton Hills College began a year later and the last building which was part of his original campus plan which was actually constructed was completed in 1976. Williams’s Brutalist design contrasts with the steep terrain and was chosen in part because it provided a fire break from the surrounding environment.[20] The Iowa State Center at Iowa State University as it was originally constructed consisted of five buildings in the brutalist style, including a theater, auditorium, coliseum, stadium, and events center, as well as connecting elevated promenades.
At the same period in the U.K. similar expansion of tertiary education led to the construction of many Brutalist university buildings, notable examples being the Boyd Orr Building at the University of Glasgow, the University of Essex,[21] and Denys Lasdun’s halls of residence at the University of East Anglia.[2]
Criticism and reception
Tesco Shopping Centre (1962) in Košice, Slovakia, is one of the first and strongly criticised Brutalist buildings in the former Czechoslovakia. It was previously known as Obchodný dom Prior.
Brutalism has some severe critics, including Charles, Prince of Wales, whose speeches and writings on architecture have excoriated Brutalism, calling many of the structures “piles of concrete”. “You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe”, said Prince Charles at the Corporation of London Planning and Communication Committee’s annual dinner in December 1987, “When it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble.”[22] Defenders of the style argue that the criticism comes not only from the designs of the buildings, but also from the fact that concrete façades do not age well in damp, cloudy maritime climates such as those of northwestern Europe and New England. In these climates, the concrete becomes streaked with water stains and sometimes with moss and lichens, and rust stains from the steel reinforcing bars.[23]
The Queen Elizabeth Square flats in Glasgow were demolished in 1993
Park Hill in 2013, after substantial refurbishment.
Critics of the style find it unappealing due to its “cold” appearance, projecting an atmosphere of totalitarianism, as well as the association of the buildings with urban decay due to materials weathering poorly in certain climates and the surfaces being prone to vandalism by graffiti. Despite this, the style is appreciated by others, and preservation efforts are taking place in the United Kingdom.[6][24]
At the University of Oregon campus, outrage and vocal distaste for Brutalism led, in part, to the hiring of Christopher Alexander and the initiation of The Oregon Experiment in the late 1970s. This led to the development of Alexander’s A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building.[25][not in citation given]
Anthony Daniels, a British author, physician, and political commentator, has written for City Journal that Brutalist structures represent an artefact of European philosophical totalitarianism, a “spiritual, intellectual, and moral deformity.” He called the buildings “cold-hearted”, “inhuman”, “hideous”, and “monstrous”. He stated that the reinforced concrete “does not age gracefully but instead crumbles, stains, and decays”, which makes alternative building styles superior.[26]
Brutalism today
After two unsuccessful proposals to demolish Preston bus station, it gained Grade II listed building status in September 2013.
Although the Brutalist movement was largely dead by the mid-1980s, having largely given way to Structural Expressionism and Deconstructivism, it has experienced a resurgence of interest since 2015 with the publication of a variety of guides and books, including the Brutalist London Map (2015), This Brutal World (2016), and SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey (2017). Many of the defining aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete façades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface, covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements. These elements are also found in renovations of older Brutalist buildings, such as the redevelopment of Sheffield’s Park Hill. Cladding of the exterior may be undertaken in part to improve the neighbours’ view, and cladding itself may bring fire risks; this is widely seen to be one of the causes of the June 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.[27]
Several Brutalist buildings have been granted listed status as historic and others, such as the Pirelli Building in New Haven’s Long Wharf,[28] and Gillespie, Kidd & Coia’s St. Peter’s Seminary, named by Prospect magazine’s survey of architects as Scotland’s greatest post-war building, have been the subject of conservation campaigns. The Twentieth Century Society has unsuccessfully campaigned against the demolition of British buildings such as the Tricorn Centre and Trinity Square multi-storey car park, but successfully in the case of Preston bus station garage, London’s Hayward Gallery and others.
Notable buildings that have been razed include the Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens (2017) in East London, John Madin’s Birmingham Central Library (2016), Marcel Breuer’s American Press Institute Building in Reston, Virginia, and Araldo Cossutta’s Third Church of Christ, Scientist in Washington, D.C. (2014). Notable buildings which are threatened include the Sirius building in Sydney, Welbeck Street Car Park in London, and Atlanta Central Library in Georgia, USA.[citation needed]
See also
P parthenon.svg Architecture portal
List of Brutalist structures
Notes
Đorđe, Alfirević & Simonović Alfirević, Sanja: Brutalism in Serbian Architecture: Style or Necessity? Facta Universitatis: Architecture and Civil Engineering (Niš), Vol. 15, No. 3 (2017), pp. 317–331.
Meades, Jonathan (2014-02-13). “The incredible hulks: Jonathan Meades’ A-Z of brutalism”. the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
Bull, Alun (2013-11-08), What is Brutalism?, retrieved 2018-10-10
Review, Architectural (2014-05-15). “The New Brutalism”. On Architecture. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
McClelland, Michael, and Graeme Stewart, “Concrete Toronto: A Guide to Concrete Architecture from the Fifties to the Seventies,” Coach House Books, 2007, p. 12.
British Brutalism. World Monument Fund.
Golan 2003, p.3.
Kulić, Vladimir; Mrduljaš, Maroje; Thaler, Wolfgang (2012). Modernism In-Between: The Mediatory Architectures of Socialist Yugoslavia. Berlin: Jovis. ISBN 978-3-86859-147-7.
Paiement, Genevieve: Habitat 67, Montreal’s ‘failed dream’ – a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 35. The Guardian, 13 May 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
Farrelly, Elizabeth (9 October 2010). “Watch this space – Brutalism meets beauty in the National Gallery’s new wing”. The Sydney Morning Herald”Spectrum” section. pp. 16–17.
“Architects: Brutalism”. Circa Design.
Trounstine, Philip J. (May 9, 1976). “Evans Woollen”. [Indianapolis] Star Magazine. Indianapolis, Indiana: 18. See also: “Prominent local architect Woollen Dies at 88”. Indianapolis Business Journal. Indianapolis. May 19, 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
Vittoriano Viganò. A come Asimmetria. Gangemi Editore spa. 2011. p. 124. ISBN 978-88-492-6584-2.
“Centar za stanovanje – Center for Housing”. stanovanje.yolasite.com. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
“Centar za stanovanje – Center for Housing”. stanovanje.yolasite.com. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
Jordy, William (1972). The Impact of European Modernism in the Mid-twentieth Century. American Buildings and Their Architects. 5. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 363. ISBN 0-19-504219-0.
Historic Netsch Campus at UIC Retrieved 31 December 2010
Megan Fernandez (June 2010). “The Pillar: Evans Woollen”. Indianapolis Monthly. Indianapolis, Indiana: 68. Retrieved December 18, 2017. See also: Philip J. Trounstine (May 9, 1976). “Evans Woollen: Struggles of a ‘Good Architect'”. [Indianapolis] Star Magazine. Indianapolis, Indiana: 23.
Millett, Larry (2007). AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. p. 148.
Kopelk, William (2005). E. Stewart Williams: A Tribute to His Work and Life. Palm Springs, CA: Palm Springs Preservation Foundation.
Marina Warner. “Diary: Why I Quit”. London Review of Books.
Glancey, Jonathan (17 May 2004). “Life after carbuncles”. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
“CIP 25 – Corrosion of Steel in Concrete” (PDF). nrmca. National Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
Winston, Anna: Five architectural treasures we must save from the UK’s heritage war. The Guardian, 18 June 2015.
“Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 22 November 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
Theodore Dalrymple (Autumn 2009). “The Architect as Totalitarian”. City Journal. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
Griffin, Andrew (14 June 2017). “Grenfell Tower cladding that may have led to fire was chosen to improve appearance of Kensington block of flats”. The Independent. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
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References
Golan, Romy: Historian of the Immediate Future: Reyner Banham – Book Review. The Art Bulletin, June 2003. (Retrieved 29 December 2014.)
Monzo, Luigi: Plädoyer für herbe Schönheiten. Gastbeitrag im Rahmen der Austellung “SOS Brutalismus – Rettet die Betonmonster”. Pforzheimer Zeitung, 27. February 2018, p. 6. (in German)
Further reading
Highmore, Ben (2017). The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-22274-6.
Kapur, Akash (October 18, 2018). “Can Poland’s Faded Brutalist Architecture Be Redeemed?”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brutalist architecture.
BRUTALISM:ONLINE, a project to document all Brutalist structures worldwide
“The incredible hulks: Jonathan Meades’ A-Z of Brutalism”
From Here to Modernity includes many Brutalist examples
“Fuck Yeah Brutalism” Blog with many photographs of Brutalist structures
“Bunkers, Brutalism and Bloodymindedness” 2-part BBC Documentary
“Symbols in Transition” Documentary film regarding the post-89 handling of the political symbols and buildings of eastern Europe
“The New Brutalism” Brutalist, Rationalist, Modernist architectural photography includes many Brutalist examples
Ontario Architecture: Brutalism
Google Community “Architecture of Brutalism” – many current photographs and links
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