| | | | | | | | | | Cameron Offices, Canberra (Andrews 1972) | | | Home Office building, London (Spence 1976) | Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon, Springfield, Illinois (Turley 1962) | | | Brutalism is an architectural style that spawned from the Modernist architectural movement and which flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. The early style was largely inspired by the work of Swiss architect, Le Corbusier (in particular his Unité d'Habitation building) and of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The term originates from the French béton brut, or "raw concrete" _ the style being characterised by exposed rough concrete often proudly revealing the textures of the wooden forms in which it had been poured, and large blockish designs. Poured concrete freed architecture from posts and beams, and the best brutalist architecture expressed this. At the same time, theories of Brutalism raised disregard for the social, historic, and architectural environment to a fashion statement; consequently Brutalism took a lot of heat for the decay of urban centres that accompanied this phase of Modernism.
Style
Brutalism is related and similar to (and often confused with) the Modernist, Minimalist and Internationalist styles of architecture. All of these styles make heavy use of repetition and regularity in their features, but brutalist designs also often incorporate striking, abject irregularities as well.
Another common theme in brutalist designs is the exposition of the building's functions -- ranging from their structure and services to their actual human use -- in the exterior of the building. In other words, Brutalist style is "the celebration of concrete." In the Boston City Hall (illustration left), 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 of this theme, the design of the Hunstanton Secondary School included placing the facility's water tank, a normally hidden service feature, in a prominently placed and visible tower. At the same time, critics noted that brutalism is often aggressively uncommunicative about how it should be negotiated by its visitor: the entrance for instance is rarely exhibited in an obvious way.
History Brutalism gained large momentum in Britain during the middle 20th century, as economically depressed (and WWII-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centers, and government buildings. Combined with the socially progressive intentions behind brutalist "streets in the sky" housings like Corbusier's Unité, brutalism was promoted as a positive option for forward_moving, modern urban housing. In practice however, many of the buildings lacked many of the community_serving features of Corbusier's vision, and instead developed into claustrophobic, crime_ridden tenements. Some such buildings took decades to develop into positive communities. The rough coolness of concrete lost its appeal under a damp and gray northern sky, and its fortress_like material touted as vandalproof soon proved vulnerable to spray_can graffiti.
Brutalist designs were also often initially criticised as eyesores. the current Fodor's guide to london mentions the Home office structure as "hulking." Because the style is essentially that of poured concrete it tends to be inexpensive to build and maintain (but very difficult to modify). However, in the case of Trellick Tower, the design has ultimately proved very popular with both tenants and owner_occupier residents. In time, many brutalist structures become appreciated as landmarks by their communities for their uniqueness and eye_catching appearance.
In recent years, the bad memories of underserved Brutalist community structures have led to their eager demolition to make way for newer, more traditionally oriented community structures. Despite a nascent Modernist appreciation movement, and the identified success that some of this style's offspring have had, many others have been or are slated to be demolished.
Figures Architects associated with the brutalist style include Erno Goldfinger, husband-and-wife pairing Peter and Alison Smithson, and, to a lesser extent perhaps, Sir Denys Lasdun. Outside of Britain, Louis Kahn's government buildings in Asia and John Andrews's government and institutional structures in Australia exhibit the creative height of the style. More recent Modernists such as I.M. Pei and Tadao Ando have also designed notable Brutalist works.
List of brutalist structures (Structure name, location, architect(s), year built) - Balfron Tower, West London, UK (Ernö Goldfinger, 1971)
- Berkshire House, Toronto, Ontario
- Boston City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts (I.M. Pei/Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles/Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty, 1969)
- Brantford City Hall, Brantford, Ontario (Michael Kopsa, 1966)
- Le Brasilia, Marseille, France (F. Boukobza, 1966)
- Brunel University Uxbridge Campus, London, United Kingdom, 1966. The Lecture Centre is possibly the finest remaining example of Brutalist Architecture in the UK
- Brunswick Centre, London, UK (Patrick Hodgkinson, 1972)
- Buffalo City Court, Buffalo, New York (Phohl, Roberts and Biggie, 1964)
- Cameron Offices, Canberra, Australia (John Andrews, 1972) (demolished 2002)
- Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts (Le Corbusier, 1963)
- Chapel on Mount Rokko, Kobe, Japan (Tadao Ando, 1986)
- Chapel on the Water, Hokkaido, Japan (Tadao Ando, 1989?)
- Chateau Granville hotel, Vancouver, British Columbia (unknown, 1977)
- Genex Tower, Belgrade, Serbia (Mihajlo Mitrovic,1980)
- George Crawford Manor, New Haven, Connecticut (Paul Rudolph, 1966)
- Crosley Tower, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio (A. M. Kinney, 1969)
- Dewan Tunku Canselor, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Datuk Kington Loo, unknown)
- The Evergreen State College, most administrative buildings, Olympia, Washington (various, 1971-1977)
- Front Hi-Rise, St. Paul, Minnesota (Freerks, Sperl, & Flynn, 1969)
- Group Residence for Young Adults, Manhattan (Horace Ginsbern & Associates, 1968) (possibly demolished)
- Habitat 67, 1967 World's Fair, Montreal, Quebec (Moshe Safdie, 1967)
- Hayward Gallery, London, UK (Dennis Crompton/Warren Chalk/Ron Herron, 1968)
- High Court building, Canberra, Australia (Edwards Madigan Torzillo and Briggs, 1980)
- Home Office Building, London, UK (Sir Basil Spence, 1976)
- J. Edgar Hoover Building, Federal Bureau of Investigation HeadquartersWashington, D.C. (Charles F. Murphy and Associates, designed 1964, completed 1974)
- Hunstanton Secondary School, Norfolk, UK (Peter and Alison Smithson, 1954)
- Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Indiana (I.M. Pei, 1982)
- Islamic Cultural Center, Manhattan
- Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban (Dhaka National Assembly), Dhaka, Bangladesh (Louis Khan, 1982 (designed 1962))
- Kanchanjunga Apartments, Mumbai, India (Charles Correa, 1974)
- King George Tower, Sydney, Australia (John Andrews, 1976)
- Kingsbury Apartments, Trenton, New Jersey
- Lauderdale Tower, London, UK (Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, 1974)
- Manhattan Church of Christ, Manhattan (unknown, 1968)
- St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center, Chicago
- Daniel Morits Towers, Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Israel
- Moore Office Building, Vancouver, British Colombia (Blair MacDonald, 1968) (demolished)
- Mummers Theater, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (John M. Johansen, 1970)
- Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France (Le Corbusier, 1956)
- Pan Am Building, New York (Emery Roth & Sons, 1963)
- Park Hill, Sheffield, UK (Ivor Smith/Jack Lynn, 1961)
- Queen Elizabeth Hall, UK (unknown, 1967) (demolition planned)
- Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon, Springfield, Illinois (Fred Turley, 1962)
- Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (Walter Netsch, 1970)
- John P. Robarts Research Library, Toronto, Ontario (A.S. Mathers and E.J. Haldenby, 1973)
- Rochdale College, Toronto (Tampold and Wells, 1968)
- Robin Hood Gardens, London, UK (Peter and Alison Smithson, 1972?)
- Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
- Rokko Housing One, Kobe, Japan (Tadao Ando, 1983)
- Royal National Theatre, London, UK (France (Le Corbusier, 1960?)
- Simon Fraser University, most buildings and plazas, Burnaby, British Columbia (Arthur Erickson/Geoffrey Massey et. al., 1965)
- St Peter's Seminary, Cardross, Scotland (Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, 1966)
- Tartu College, Toronto (Tampold and Wells, 1969)
- Tel Aviv City Hall House, Tel Aviv, Israel (unknown, 1966)
- Trellick Tower, London, UK (Erno Goldfinger, 1972)
- Tricorn Centre, UK (Owen Luder, 1964)(demolished 2004)
- Unité d'Habitation de Marseille, Marseille, France (Le Corbusier, 1952)
- Unité d'Habitation de Nantes, Marseille, France (Le Corbusier, 1955)
- Unité d'Habitation de Briey en Forêt, Briey en Forêt, France (Le Corbusier, 1956?/1963?)
- Unité d'Habitation Les Bruneaux, Firminy, France (Le Corbusier, 1967)
- University of California, Berkeley, numerous buildings, Berkeley, California (Joseph Esherick?, unknown)
- University of California, Irvine, most original buildings, Irvine, California (William Pereira and Associates, 1960s)
- Student Residences, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia (John Andrews, 1975)
- University of Washington, some dormitories, Seattle, Washington
- Engineering & Math Sciences building, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Grelinger, Rose, Klumb, Jurenec, Hass, 1971)
- Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario (Ronald E. Murphy/John Andrews, 1972)
- Wells Fargo Building, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1969)
- Robert W. Woodruff Library (Geoffrey Freeman?, 1969) and other buildings (unknown, 1974_77), Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
- numerous government and office buildings in Basingstoke, UK (unknown, 1970s); also the Basingstoke Town Centre (late 1960s) (demolished)
- the support columns of the Seattle Monorail track (ALWEG, 1962) have been identified as "brutalist"
- numerous highway elevation projects in the United States from the late 1960s and 1970s resemble brutalist designs for their use of stark, blocky concrete shapes
See also
External links - Ontario Architecture: Brutalism (http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/Brutalist.htm)
- From Here to Modernity (http://www.open2.net/modernity/inner_frameset.htm) includes many Brutalist examples
- Sarah J. Duncan (http://www.sarahjduncan.com/brutalism.html) photos of brutalist structures
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