Post-war modernism

Raw concrete, brick and large-scale planning – the architecture of the welfare state and Brutalism.

After the Second World War building took place on an unprecedented scale: housing, suburbs, schools, hospitals and cultural centres. Modernism became heavier and more attentive to materials. Raw concrete (béton brut), plain brick and powerful, sculptural volumes replaced the white lightness of the 1930s.

After the Second World War Europe had to be rebuilt, and the welfare states built housing, schools and hospitals on an enormous scale. Industrial methods using prefabricated concrete elements made this possible. Brutalism, named after Le Corbusier’s béton brut, sought to show materials honestly. Criticism of the large scale and of the demolition of old town centres grew during the 1960s and 70s.

Sweden built more per inhabitant than almost any other country. Vällingby, the suburbs of the Million Programme, Sergels torg and Kulturhuset, and Sigurd Lewerentz’s brick churches belong to this period.