Brutalist Architecture In California
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Brutalist architecture is an
architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...
that emerged during the 1950s in the
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, among the reconstruction projects of the
post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...
or
brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...
colour palette; other materials, such as
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
,
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
, and
glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
, are also featured. Descended from
Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, brutalism is said to be a reaction against the nostalgia of architecture in the 1940s. Derived from the Swedish phrase ''nybrutalism'', the term "new brutalism" was first used by British architects Alison and Peter Smithson for their pioneering approach to design. The style was further popularised in a 1955 essay by architectural critic Reyner Banham, who also associated the movement with the French phrases '' béton brut'' ("raw concrete") and '' art brut'' ("raw art"). The style, as developed by architects such as the Smithsons, Hungarian-born Ernő Goldfinger, and the British firm Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, was partly foreshadowed by the modernist work of other architects such as French-Swiss
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
, Estonian-American Louis Kahn, German-American Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Finnish Alvar Aalto. In the United Kingdom, brutalism was featured in the design of utilitarian, low-cost
social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
influenced by
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
principles and soon spread to other regions around the world, while being echoed by similar styles like in
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. Brutalist designs became most commonly used in the design of institutional buildings, such as provincial legislatures, public works projects,
universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, libraries,
court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...
s, and city halls. The popularity of the movement began to decline in the late 1970s, with some associating the style with urban decay and
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
. Brutalism's popularity in socialist and communist nations owed to traditional styles being associated with the
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, whereas concrete emphasized equality. Brutalism has been polarising historically; specific buildings, as well as the movement as a whole, have drawn a range of criticism (often being described as "cold"). There are often public-led campaigns to demolish brutalist buildings. Some people are favourable to the style, and in the United Kingdom some buildings have been preserved.


History

The term ''nybrutalism'' (new brutalism) was coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund to describe Villa Göth, a modern brick home in
Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...
, designed in January 1950Hans Asplund's letter to Eric De Mare, Architectural Review, August 1956 by his contemporaries Bengt Edman and Lennart Holm. Showcasing the 'as found' design approach that would later be at the core of brutalism, the house displays visible I-beams over windows, exposed brick inside and out, and poured concrete in several rooms where the tongue-and-groove pattern of the boards used to build the forms can be seen. The term was picked up in the summer of 1950 by a group of visiting English architects, including Michael Ventris, Oliver Cox, and Graeme Shankland, where it apparently "spread like wildfire, and assubsequently adopted by a certain faction of young British architects".The New Brutalism, Reyner Banham, Architectural Press, London 1966, p10 The first published usage of the phrase "new brutalism" occurred in 1953, when Alison Smithson used it to describe a plan for their unbuilt
Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
house which appeared in the November issue of '' Architectural Design''. She further stated: "It is our intention in this building to have the structure exposed entirely, without interior finishes wherever practicable." The Smithsons' Hunstanton School completed in 1954 in
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, and the Sugden House completed in 1955 in
Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...
, represent the earliest examples of new brutalism in the United Kingdom. Hunstanton school, likely inspired by Mies van der Rohe's 1946 Alumni Memorial Hall at the
Illinois Institute of Technology The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...
in
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, United States, is notable as the first completed building in the world to carry the title of "new brutalist" by its architects. At the time, it was described as "the most truly modern building in England". The term gained increasingly wider recognition when British architectural historian Reyner Banham used it to identify both an ethic and aesthetic style, in his 1955 essay ''The New Brutalism''. In the essay, Banham described Hunstanton and the Soho house as the "reference by which The New Brutalism in architecture may be defined." Reyner Banham also associated the term "new brutalism" with art brut and '' béton brut'', meaning "raw concrete" in French, for the first time.British Brutalism.
''World Monument Fund''.
The best-known ''béton brut'' architecture is the proto-brutalist work of the Swiss-French architect
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
, in particular his 1952 '' Unité d'habitation'' in
Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
, France; the 1951–1961 Chandigarh Capitol Complex in India; and the 1955 church of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France. Banham further expanded his thoughts in the 1966 book, ''The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?'', to characterise a somewhat recently established cluster of architectural approaches, particularly in Europe. In the book, Banham says that Le Corbusier's concrete work was a source of inspiration and helped popularise the movement, suggesting "if there is one single verbal formula that has made the concept of Brutalism admissible in most of the world's Western languages, it is that Le Corbusier himself described that concrete work as ' béton-brut'". He further states that "the words 'The New Brutalism' were already circulating, and had acquired some depth of meaning through things said and done, over and above the widely recognised connection with ''béton brut''. The phrase still 'belonged' to the Smithsons, however, and it was their activities above all others that were giving distinctive qualities to the concept of Brutalism."


Motif

New brutalism is not only an architectural style; it is also a philosophical approach to architectural design, a striving to create simple, honest, and functional buildings that accommodate their purpose, inhabitants, and location. Stylistically, brutalism is a strict, modernistic design language that has been said to be a reaction to the architecture of the 1940s, much of which was characterised by a retrospective nostalgia. Peter Smithson believed that the core of brutalism was a reverence for materials, expressed honestly, stating "Brutalism is not concerned with the material as such but rather the quality of material", and "the seeing of materials for what they were: the woodness of the wood; the sandiness of sand." Architect John Voelcker explained that the "new brutalism" in architecture "cannot be understood through stylistic analysis, although some day a comprehensible style might emerge", supporting the Smithsons' description of the movement as "an ethic, not an aesthetic". Reyner Banham felt the phrase "the new brutalism" existed as both an attitude toward design as well as a descriptive label for the architecture itself and that it "eludes precise description, while remaining a living force". He attempted to codify the movement in systematic language, insisting that a brutalist structure must satisfy the following terms, "1, Formal legibility of plan; 2, clear exhibition of structure, and 3, valuation of materials for their inherent qualities 'as found'." Also important was the aesthetic "image", or "coherence of the building as a visual entity". Brutalist buildings are usually constructed with reoccurring modular elements representing specific functional zones, distinctly articulated and grouped together into a unified whole. There is often an emphasis on graphic expressions in the external elevations and in the whole-site architectural plan in regard to the main functions and people-flows of the buildings. Buildings may use materials such as concrete, brick, glass, steel, timber, rough-hewn stone, and gabions among others. However, due to its low cost, raw concrete is often used and left to reveal the basic nature of its construction with rough surfaces featuring wood "shuttering" produced when the forms were cast in situ. Examples are frequently massive in character (even when not large) and challenge traditional notions of what a building should look like with focus given to interior spaces as much as exterior. A common theme in brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's inner-workings—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. Rather than being hidden in the walls, Hunstanton's water and electric utilities were delivered via readily visible pipes and conduits. Brutalism as an architectural philosophy was often associated with a
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
n ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially by Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style. Indeed, their work sought to emphasize functionality and to connect architecture with what they viewed as the realities of modern life. Among their early contributions were " streets in the sky" in which traffic and pedestrian circulation were rigorously separated, another theme popular in the 1960s. This style had a strong position in the architecture of European
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
countries from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s (
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,
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
,
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
,
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
,
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
). In Czechoslovakia, Brutalism was presented as an attempt to create a "national" but also "modern socialist" architectural style. Such prefabricated socialist era buildings are called panelaky. A sub-genre of brutalism is "brick brutalism" or "brickalism", where the dominant structural material is brick rather than concrete. Examples range from the Smithson's house in Soho (1952) to
Colin St John Wilson Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA, Royal Academy, RA, (14 March 1922 – 14 May 2007) was an English architect, lecturer and author. With his partner MJ Long, Wilson spent over 30 years progressing t ...
's
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(1982–98).


Designers

In the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, 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 The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...
Architects Department, Owen Luder, John Bancroft, and, arguably perhaps, Sir Denys Lasdun, Sir
Leslie Martin Sir John Leslie Martin (17 August 1908, in Manchester – 28 July 2000) was an English architect, and a leading advocate of the International Style. Martin's most famous building is the Royal Festival Hall. His work was especially influenced ...
, Sir James Stirling and James Gowan with their early works. Some well-known examples of brutalist-influenced architecture in the British capital include the Barbican Centre ( Chamberlin, Powell and Bon) and the National Theatre (Denys Lasdun). In the
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, Paul Rudolph and Ralph Rapson were both noted brutalists. Evans Woollen III, a pacesetter among architects in the
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, is credited for introducing the Brutalist and Modernist architecture styles to
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, Indiana. 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. In
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, Georgia, the architectural style was introduced to Buckhead's affluent Peachtree Road with the Ted Levy-designed Plaza Towers and Park Place on Peachtree condominiums. Many of the stations of the Washington Metro, particularly older stations, were constructed in the brutalist style. Architectural historian William Jordy says that although Louis Kahn was " posed 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." In
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, 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
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and Warringah Civic Centre by Christopher Kringas, the MUSE building (also referred to as C7A MUSE) which was the original
Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
at Macquarie University before the new library replaced it, and WTC Wharf (World Trade Centre in Melbourne). John Andrews (architect), John Andrews's government and institutional structures in Australia also exhibit the style. One of the first brutalist buildings in Melbourne was the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in Malvern, designed by Daryl Jackson and Kevin Borland in 1967. It has been nominated for heritage protection. 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 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 Green Line (Montreal Metro), Montreal Metro's Green Line; the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown; the National Arts Centre, Ottawa, National Arts Centre in Ottawa; the Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston, Ontario), Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston; the Ontario Science Centre, Robarts Library, Rochdale College in Toronto; Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and Canadian Grain Commission building in Winnipeg; and the church of the Westminster Abbey (British Columbia), Westminster Abbey in British Columbia. Prominent Vancouver-based architect, Arthur Erickson was responsible for several notable brutalist developments including Simon Fraser University's main campus building, the MacMillan Bloedel Building, Vancouver's Evergreen Building, the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Museum of Anthropology and Vancouver Law Courts (Vancouver), Law Courts. In Argentina, the main representative of Brutalism was Clorindo Testa, who was massively influential in the development of Brutalism in Latin America. He famously designed the Banco de Londres y América del Sur Headquarters, the National Library of Argentina, and several other relevant buildings of Buenos Aires. Other Brutalist landmarks in Argentina include the Hospital Naval, the Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria in Buenos Aires, the :es:Torre Dorrego, Torre Dorrego, the Casa del Puente and the :es:Edificio Somisa, Edificio Somisa (completely made of steel and the first building in the world to be fully welded). In Serbia, Božidar Janković was a representative of the so-called "Belgrade School of residence", identifiable by its functionalist relations on the basis of the flat and elaborated in detail the architecture. Known example, Western City Gate also known as the Genex Tower is a 36-storey skyscraper in Belgrade, Serbia, which was designed in 1977 by Mihajlo Mitrović. It is formed by two towers connected with a two-storey bridge and revolving restaurant at the top. It is tall (with restaurant ) and is the second-tallest high-rise in Belgrade after Ušće Tower. The building was designed in the brutalist style with some elements of Structuralism (architecture), structuralism and Constructivism (art), constructivism. It is considered a prime representative of the brutalist architecture in Serbia and one of the best of its style built in the 1960s and the 1970s in the world. The treatment of the form and details is slightly associating the building with postmodernism and is today one of the rare surviving representatives of this style's early period in Serbia. The artistic expression of the gate marked an entire era in Serbian architecture. In Vietnam, brutalist architecture is particularly popular among old public buildings and has been associated with the '':vi:Thời bao cấp, bao cấp'' era (lit: subsidizing), the period during which the country followed Soviet-type economic planning. Many Soviet architects, most notably :ru:Исакович, Гарольд Григорьевич, Garol Isakovich, were sent to Vietnam during that time to help train new architects and played an influential role in shaping the country's architectural styles for decades. Isakovich himself also designed some of the most notable brutalist buildings in Vietnam, including the :vi:Cung Văn hóa Lao động Hữu nghị Việt Xô, Vietnam-Soviet Friendship Palace of Culture and Labour (1985). In his later years, Isakovich, who was awarded the Hero of Labor (Vietnam), Hero of Labor by the Vietnamese government in 1976, is said to have deviated from the brutalist style and adopted Vietnamese traditional styles in his design, which has been referred to by some Vietnamese architects as ''Chủ nghĩa hiện đại địa phương'' (lit: local modernism) and ''hậu hiện đại'' (postmodernism). In the former South Vietnam, notable buildings that are said to carry brutalist elements include the Independence Palace (1966) designed by Ngô Viết Thụ, the first Asian architect to become an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. However, whether South Vietnamese architecture prior to 1975 was brutalism or not remains a matter of dispute, with some architects argued it was actually modernism. In recent years, public sentiments in Vietnam towards brutalist architecture has shifted negatively, but the style is said to have made a comeback recently.


On university campuses

Early examples of brutalist architecture in British universities include the 'beehives' at St John's College, Oxford, (Michael Powers of the Architects' Co-Partnership; 1958–60) and the extension to the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, department of architecture at the University of Cambridge in 1959 under the influence of
Leslie Martin Sir John Leslie Martin (17 August 1908, in Manchester – 28 July 2000) was an English architect, and a leading advocate of the International Style. Martin's most famous building is the Royal Festival Hall. His work was especially influenced ...
, the head of the department, and designed by
Colin St John Wilson Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA, Royal Academy, RA, (14 March 1922 – 14 May 2007) was an English architect, lecturer and author. With his partner MJ Long, Wilson spent over 30 years progressing t ...
and Alex Hardy, with participation by students at the university. This inspired further brutalist buildings in Cambridge, including the Grade II listed University Centre and the Grade II listed Churchill College. The Grade II* listed History Faculty Building (1964–67) is described in its listing as "a distinctive example of a new approach to education buildings, from a period when the universities were at the forefront of architectural patronage". It was the second building in architect James Stirling's ''Red Trilogy'', which started with the University of Leicester Engineering Building (with James Gowan; 1959–63), designed to reflect the vernacular architecture of Leicester's factories and sometimes regarded as the first post modern architecture, post modern building in Britain, and concluded with the Florey Building at Queen's College, Oxford (1966–71). The building of new universities in the UK in the 1960s led to opportunities for brutalist architects. The first to be built was the University of Sussex, designed by Basil Spence, with the Grade I listed Falmer House (1960–62) as its centerpiece. The building has been described as a "meeting of Arts and Crafts with modernism", with features such as hand-made bricks that contrast with the pre-fabricated construction of other 1960s campuses, and colonnades of bare, board-marked concrete arches on brick piers inspired by the Colosseum. It is also considered one of the "key Brutalist buildings" by the Royal Institute of British Architects. It has, in a reversal of the usual situation for brutalist architecture, received popular acclaim while being less liked by professional critics and is sometimes described as picturesque rather than brutalist. Denys Lasdun's work at the University of East Anglia, including six linked halls of residence in Norfolk Terrace and four linked halls of residence in Suffolk Terrace (commonly referred to as the 'ziggurats') and the library and 'teaching wall' between them, is considered one of the finest examples of a 1960s brutalist university campus. The ziggurats were closed in 2023 as part of the 2023 United Kingdom reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete crisis, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete crisis, with no date set for their refurbishment . Another notable example is the Central Hall, University of York, Central Hall of the University of York (1966–68) with its Derwent College, York, surrounding colleges (1963–65) designed by Stirrat Johnson-Marshall and Andrew Derbyshire of Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners. The reinforced concrete of the Central Hall gives a contrast to the colleges, which were the first university buildings built using the Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme, CLASP prefabricated system originally developed for school buildings. The same architectural practice would go on to build the universities of University of Bath, Bath, University of Stirling, Stirling and University of Ulster, Ulster. The Grade II listed lecture block at Brunel University (John Heywood of Sheppard Robson, Richard Sheppard, Robson and Partners; 1965–68) was used as a location in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film ''A Clockwork Orange (film), A Clockwork Orange''. The central campus complex of the University of Essex (1964) was designed by Kenneth Capon of the Architects' Co-Partnership, with complementary concrete extensions by Patel Taylor matching the brutalist aesthetic in 2015. A notable pairing of brutalist campus buildings is found at Durham University, with Ove Arup's Grade I-listed Kingsgate Bridge (1963), one of only six post-1961 buildings to have been listed as Grade I by 2017, and the Grade II-listed Dunelm House (Richard Raines of the Architects' Co-Partnership with Michael Powers as the partner-in-charge; 1964–66), described in its listing as "the foremost students' union building of the post-war era in England" but only saved from demolition in 2021 following a five-year campaign by the Twentieth Century Society. Dunelm House was designed to reflect the vernacular architecture of the city in the way its multiple levels cascade down the river bank, breaking up the bulk of the building. This lead Nikolaus Pevsner , Pevsner to describe it as "Brutal by tradition but not brutal to the landscape" and to it being praised as a brutalist building that works well in its setting even by opponents of the style. One of the earliest brutalist buildings in the US was Paul Rudolph's 1963 Rudolph Hall, Art and Architecture Building at Yale University where, as department chair, he was both client and architect, giving him a unique freedom to explore new directions. Rudolph's 1964 design for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is a rare example of an entire campus designed in the brutalist style, and was considered by him to be "the most complete realisation of his experiments with urbanism and monumentality". Walter Netsch similarly 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. Netsch also designed the brutalist Regenstein Library, Joseph Regenstein Library for the University of Chicago and the Northwestern University Library. Crafton Hills College in California was designed by Mid-century modern, desert modern architect E. Stewart Williams in 1965 and built between 1966 and 1976. Williams' brutalist design contrasts with the steep terrain of the area and was chosen in part because it provided a firebreak from the surrounding environment. One of the most famous brutalist buildings in the United States is Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego. Designed by William Pereira and built 1969–70, it is said to "occup[y] a fascinating nexus between brutalism and futurism" but was originally intended as a modernist building in steel and glass before cost considerations meant the structural elements were redesigned in concrete and moved to the outside of the building. Evans Woollen III's brutalist Clowes Memorial Hall, a performing arts facility that opened in 1963 on the campus of Butler University in
Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...
, was praised for its bold and dramatic design. The University of Minnesota's West Bank campus features the Rarig Center, a performing arts venue by Ralph Rapson from 1971 that has been called "the best example in the Twin Cities of the style called Brutalism". Faner Hall (SIUC), Faner Hall at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has long been controversial for its use of brutalism and has been considered an eyesore on campus, deemed to have a "facade only a mother could love" by the university itself. The Lauinger Library, Joseph Mark Lauinger Library, the main library of the Georgetown University Library System, was designed by John Carl Warnecke and opened in 1970. Originally conceived with a traditional design similar to List of Georgetown University buildings, other buildings at Georgetown University, the final design of the Lauinger Library embraces brutalism and was intended as a modern interpretation of the nearby Healy Hall, a Romanesque architecture, Flemish Romanesque building. The building once received the American Institute of Architects#Cosponsored programs, Award of Merit by the American Institute of Architects in 1976 for distinguished accomplishment in library architecture. However, in recent years, as public attitudes towards brutalism have shifted, the library has been referred to as one of the "ugliest" buildings in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown and Washington, D.C. Examples of brutalist university campuses can be found in other countries as well. The Robarts Library at the University of Toronto was designed by Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde and built between 1968 and 1973. Although it has been called "a crowning achievement of the brutalist movement", its opening in 1974 came after public sentiment had turned against brutalism, leading to it being condemned as "a blunder on the grandest scale". In Turkey, the Middle East Technical University campus in Ankara is a notable example of brutalist architecture, designed by Behruz Çinici, Behruz and Altuğ Çinici in the 1960s. Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa (now Kingsway Campus Auckland Park, University of Johannesburg) is largely brutalist, designed as an expression of Afrikaans identity. Several universities in Southeast Asia also feature brutalist designs, including those at the Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University, Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmaceutical University, the Royal University of Phnom Penh, and the :vi:Trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Huế, Industrial College of Hue.


Reception

A 2014 article in ''The Economist'' noted its unpopularity with the public, observing that a campaign to demolish a building will usually be directed against a brutalist one. According to Simon Jenkins, "Few styles in history can have been met with so many pleas from its users to see it destroyed." In 2005, the British TV programme ''Demolition (TV series), Demolition'' ran a public vote to select twelve buildings that ought to be demolished, and eight of those selected were brutalist buildings. One argument is that this criticism exists in part because concrete façades do not age well in damp, cloudy Oceanic climate, 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 lichen, and rust stains from the rebar, steel reinforcing bars. Critics of the style find it unappealing due to its "cold" appearance, projecting an atmosphere of
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
, 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.


In the 21st century

Although the Brutalist movement was largely over by the late 1970s and early 1980s, having largely given way to High-tech architecture, Structural Expressionism and Deconstructivism, it has experienced a resurgence of interest since 2015 with the publication of a variety of guides and books, including ''Brutal London'' (Zupagrafika, 2015), ''Brutalist London Map'' (2015), ''This Brutal World'' (2016), ''SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey'' (2017), and the lavish ''Atlas of Brutalist Architecture'' (Phaidon, 2018). Many of the defining aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete façades often being Abrasive blasting, sandblasted to create a stone-like surface, covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, precast elements. These elements are also found in renovations of older Brutalist buildings, such as the redevelopment of Park Hill, Sheffield, Sheffield's Park Hill. However, board-marked concrete in the brutalist tradition is still used in some developments, such as the neobrutalist Silberrad Student Centre and library extension at the University of Essex, designed to be sympathetic to the existing 1960s brutalist campus buildings and taking "the opportunity to use in-situ brutalist concrete as a sensitive contextual material". Villa Göth was listed as historically significant by the Uppsala county administrative board on 3 March 1995. Several brutalist buildings in the United Kingdom have been granted Listed Building, listed status as historic, and others, such as Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's St Peter's Seminary, Cardross, St. Peter's Seminary, named by ''Urban Realm, Prospect'' magazine's survey of architects as Scotland's greatest post-war building, have been the subject of conservation campaigns. Similar buildings in the United States have been recognized, such as the Pirelli Tire Building in New Haven's Long Wharf. The Twentieth Century Society has unsuccessfully campaigned against the demolition of British buildings such as the Tricorn Centre and Trinity Square, Gateshead, Trinity Square multi-storey car park, made famous by its prominent role in the film ''Get Carter'', but successfully in the case of Preston bus station garage, London's Hayward Gallery, and others. Notable buildings that have been demolished include the Smithsons' Robin Hood Gardens (2017) in East London, John Madin's Birmingham Central Library (2016), Marcel Breuer's American Press Institute Building in Reston, Virginia, Araldo Cossutta's Third Church of Christ, Scientist (Washington, D.C.), Third Church of Christ, Scientist in Washington, D.C. (2014), and the Welbeck Street car park in London (2019).


See also

* Utopian architecture * List of Brutalist structures


References


Further reading

* * * * Monzo, Luigi: Plädoyer für herbe Schönheiten. Gastbeitrag im Rahmen der Austellung "SOS Brutalismus – Rettet die Betonmonster". ''Pforzheimer Zeitung'', 27 February 2018, p. 6. * Anna Rita Emili, ''Pure and simple, the architecture of New Brutalism,'' Ed.Kappa Rome 2008 * Anna Rita Emili, ''Architettura estrema, il Neobrutalismo alla prova della contemporaneità'', Quodlibet, Macerata 2011 * Anna Rita Emili, ''Il Brutalismo paulista, L'architettura brasiliana tra teoria e progetto'', Manifesto Libri, Roma ISBN 978872859759, pp. 335 * Silvia Groaz, ''New Brutalism. The Invention of a Style'', EPFL Press, Lausanne, 2023, ISBN 978-2-88915-510-1


External links


"The incredible hulks: Jonathan Meades' A-Z of Brutalism"
{{Authority control Brutalist architecture, Modernist architecture, 20th-century architectural styles American architectural styles British architectural styles Architecture in England by period or style 1950s architecture 1960s architecture 1970s architecture