I don’t know about you, but I have always loved Brutalist Architecture. I mean, there are some pretty dismal and uninteresting examples, but those that show mastery of the form are brilliant. It’s amazing how such minimalist forms inspire feeling. Feelings of awe, mystery, isolation, even power, but then also feelings of intimacy, warmth, collaboration, solace, and healing.
Here are some of my favourite images. I wonder if you might have some favourites to share here too, as well as your thoughts about Brutalist Architecture and Art?
Luis Barragan, probably the most famous Mexican architect, wasn’t exactly a brutalist, but he created some of the most striking and beautiful concrete forms for the houses he designed. I’m sure the brutalists would be happy to claim him as one of their own.
Thanks for introducing me to Luis Barragan! I had a look at some of his designs. It looks to me like he’s heading towards modernism [edit: which came later], which has it’s roots and overlaps with brutalism. None of these styles are easy to pin down one to the other.
His use of colour is striking. It’s inspiring. Here are some more examples I found of his work:
Oh nice! It’s not easy to find interior shots of Brutalist Architecture. People see the outside, and don’t realize how livable the insides are. They are often built for people to work and live with people in communal spaces.
Here are a couple of examples of the University Centre of my Alma Mater - inside and outside. I think maybe this particular building, and some of the other buildings on campus are what started my love of the style.
The Barbican complex in London shares the same style.
Google for images of it.
It certainly has hammered concrete, but I may wrong in thinking that the National Theatre does. Mostly, if not entirely, the National theatre has the concrete finish straight off the shuttering plywood.
I think modernism came first, with the Bauhaus movement in Germany. Brutalism, popularized in the U.S. by Paul Rudolph (for a time the dean of the Yale School of Architecture), had its heyday in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. But you’re correct that the styles overlap.
Oops, I guess I did imply modernism came later. I’ll edit the post to clarify. Thanks for that. There’s about a decade of crossover between Modernism and Brutalism. And probably a lot of gradation between the two!!
I liked Brutalism myself, though I know a lot of non-architects hate it.
New Haven has a bunch, particularly Rudolph and Breuer. You can check out some on New Haven Modern:
One of Breuer’s is currently being renovated into a hotel. The Preservation Trust is happy it was saved and not demolished completely when Ikea bought the property.
A Rescued Rudolph: Seat of Orange County, New York, Town of Goshen. The finished renovation is controversial among Rudolph fans, but it’s better than the demolition it was slated for.
Here are some sceenshots of a multiplayer VR room I’m working on. (workflow: built in Sketch 2017, then to blender for light baking, then to Mozzilla Hubs) These are taken from within Mozilla Hubs:
I don’t know if this is called brutalism but it sure is brutal…
It is called building A of Radio Kootwijk, the build started in 1918 and was a radiostation used to communicate with then so-called Dutch-Indië witch is now Indonesia.
Yes, but of course you can be “brutal” in any material. Some of Frank Gehry’s early works could perhaps be classified as brutalism in 2x4s and gypboard. Or, below, the Särestöniemi museum, Kittilä, Finland, by Reima Pietilä, 1972, in what I would call “log brutalism”
