What is Brutalism? Concrete architecture explained

Brutalism is a movement within post-war modernism, roughly 1950–1975, that showed a building's materials and structure completely openly, above all raw concrete with the marks of the formwork boards left in it. The buildings are often large, heavy and sculptural. The name comes from the French béton brut, raw concrete, not from the word brutal.

Facts

Raw concrete, not brutality

The word Brutalism sounds harsh, but it comes from the French béton brut, untreated concrete. Le Corbusier left the concrete of the Unité d'habitation in Marseille, built 1947–1952, as it came out of the formwork, with the grain of the wood and the joints between the boards imprinted on the surface. The building contains some 330 flats, shops and a roof terrace, like a town in a single building.

In Britain the architects Alison and Peter Smithson and the critic Reyner Banham began in the 1950s to speak of a New Brutalism. For them it was about honesty: showing materials, pipes and structure instead of hiding them behind render and decoration.

Ideals and building society

Brutalism was closely linked to the building of the post-war welfare state. Schools, universities, hospitals, housing and arts centres were to be built quickly, cheaply and on a large scale for many people. Concrete was both practical and a way of expressing a new, democratic monumentality.

In London the Barbican Estate, a vast residential and arts complex with towers, terraces and lakes, was built from the mid-1960s. In the United States Louis Kahn designed the Salk Institute in California with two rows of laboratories around an open courtyard facing the Pacific, and the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas with long concrete vaults and daylight from above.

A global style

Brutalism spread across the world. In Japan Kenzo Tange built Yoyogi National Gymnasium for the Olympic Games of 1964, with a roof suspended on steel cables between two concrete masts. In Brazil Oscar Niemeyer designed the National Congress in the new capital, inaugurated in 1960.

The style can also be seen in universities, libraries and town plans from India to Eastern Europe. It suited large public projects in the East as well as in the West, which contributed to it later being associated with anonymous, large-scale environments.

Brutalism in Sweden

In Sweden Kulturhuset on Sergels torg, designed by Peter Celsing and opened in the 1970s, is a well-known example: a long glass façade facing the square and heavy concrete sections behind. Swedish post-war modernism used brick as readily as concrete.

Sigurd Lewerentz designed St Peter's Church in Klippan, completed in 1966, entirely in dark brick, where no brick was allowed to be cut. The church and his earlier St Mark's Church in Björkhagen are often counted among the most poetic buildings of Brutalism, even though they are not made of concrete. Read more about the period on the page on post-war modernism.

Hated, loved and reassessed

From the 1970s Brutalism was increasingly criticised. The concrete weathered and stained in the northern European climate, and the large housing estates became associated with social problems. Many buildings were demolished or rebuilt, and architects turned to the colours and historical quotations of Postmodernism.

In the 21st century attitudes have changed. Photographers, architects and a wide public have begun to see the beauty of the sculptural forms and the honesty of the materials, and several Brutalist buildings have been listed as protected heritage. Compare with the guides to Functionalism and Postmodern architecture.

How to recognise it

Exercise

What does béton brut, which gave Brutalism its name, mean?