Brutalism

Brutalism, term used to describe the architectural style that emerged in the mid-20th century, characterized by raw concrete, bold geometric forms, and a utilitarian aesthetic. Originating from the modernist movement, Brutalism was influenced by the postwar need for affordable, functional buildings and was widely used for government institutions, universities, and social housing. It flourished in varied forms and at different times throughout the globe, including in England, the United States, Brazil, India, and Japan, before falling largely out of favor in the 1980s.

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English architects Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson first used the term New Brutalism in 1954 to describe the post-1930 designs of the major French architect Le Corbusier. His interpretation of the modern movement involved the use of monumental sculptural shapes and of raw, unfinished molded concrete, an approach that, in contrast to his fellow leading architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his use of glass and steel, represented a New Brutalism to the English architects. Interestingly, the designs of the Smithsons, particularly the school (1954) they planned for Hunstanton, Norfolk, England, more closely resemble the work of Mies van der Rohe than of Le Corbusier. To the Smithsons, then, Brutalism (though they used term New Brutalism) was less about the look of the building, and more about the return to functionalist principles—in services, materials, and structure. The school in Hunstanton school, for example, displays a willful avoidance of polish and elegance, in which such structural elements as steel beams and precast concrete slabs are exposed to view and convey a stark, austere rectilinearity.

Over time, the Smithsons and other architects began to emulate what they saw as the strength of Le Corbusier’s designs: powerful visual images. Their work took on massive, concrete silhouettes, the characteristics now most strongly associated with Brutalist buildings. This can be seen, for example, in the gray concrete masses of Denys Lasdun’s University of East Anglia, Norfolk (1962–68), and in the Smithsons’ design for the Economist Building (1964; later renamed the Smithson Tower) and the Robin Hood Gardens (1972) social housing complex, both in London. Brutalism soon became a helpful label to describe such diverse projects as Maekawa Kunio’s Setagaya Community Center (1959), Tokyo; Marcel Breuer’s Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City (1966; the museum moved into a Renzo Piano-designed building in 2015); Walter Netsch’s University of Illinois at Chicago Circle campus (1960s; later renamed University of Illinois Chicago), and Lina Bo Bardi’s São Paulo Art Museum (1968), London.