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11 lesser-known Brutalist buildingsthat helped define the movement

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14 September 2014 | 5 commentsMore:

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As part of our series on Brutalism Dezeen invited Michael Abrahamson, editor of the F*ck Yeah Brutalism blog, to choose his favourite buildings.

Over the past three years operating the Tumblr blog F*ck Yeah Brutalism (FYB), the term has proven to be a surprisingly versatile yet also anenduring descriptor. To put it another way, it's hard to say what one means when using the term Brutalism, but one knows it when one sees it. I like tothink of the images I've collected on FYB as a kind of visual definition.

While not all of the buildings that have appeared there fit the proper historical or conceptual frames for the term, what they share is a certain character –an exhibitionist's attitude to material and structure, a robustness of form, a transparency of function — that was undeniably prevalent in the architectureof Westernised and Westernising nations during the postwar years.

Related story: "Cute nostalgia sits strangely with Brutalism"

In spite of the truly global spread of these tendencies, most attention to Brutalism continues to focus on only a few superlative buildings in the UK andUS. The word itself may be English, but the definition — in language or in pictures — need not remain so. What follows is a collection of nominees fora more inclusive and expanded Brutalist canon. They are arranged chronologically for the sake of expedience.

Owen Luder Partnership, Eros House, Catford, London, England, 1960

Click on all these images to view larger versions

Eros House was the first major work by master Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon for the firm led by Owen Luder. The stair tower features continuousglass ribbons clad in translucent structural panes that reduce climbers to blurred silhouettes. Its asymmetrical arrangement became default for the manybuildings of this type produced by Luder’s firm, though none came close to matching Eros House's heady mix of Constructivist faktura and NewBrutalist literalism.

Gordon would go on to design other infamous buildings for Luder including Trinity Square and Derwent Tower in Gateshead along with the TricornCentre in Portsmouth, all of which have been demolished over the past decade. Eros House is listed, but renovations have reduced the impact of its oncedaringly transparent facades.

Gino Valle, Zanussi-Rex Offices, Pordenone, Italy, 1961

This once-famous building for an Italian appliance manufacturer adopts the rugged look of the utilitarian industrial sheds that surround it. Serving as theadministrative center for a large manufacturing center, its offices terrace northward, affording a commanding view over the complex.

The south-facing street façade seen here features cantilevered shapes in exposed concrete that give its public face a graphic quality. Stocky stairwaysweave around and through the glass-enclosed lobby, which has since been shielded from the harsh sun with a fixed metal shade.

Förderer, Otto, Zwimpfer, Elementary School, Aesch, Switzerland, 1962

An accomplished sculptor as well as an architect, Walter Maria Förderer is best known for the sublime catholic churches he designed in his nativeSwitzerland. With his collaborators Rolf Otto and Hans Zwimpfer, he also built a series of secular buildings over the course of the 1960s. Completed in1962, this school complex for a small Swiss town near Basel features many of Förderer's architectural signatures.

What would in the hands of other architects be rectangular openings are instead cragged or crenelated, and exposed concrete is festooned with wood andmetal insets for various purposes. Though this building did make an appearance in Banham's 1966 book The New Brutalism, the work of Förderer andhis partners seems to receive little attention outside Switzerland.

Alfred Neumann, Zvi Hecker and Eldar Sharon, Town Hall, Bat Yam, Israel, 1963

It may be a bit of a stretch to refer to this beguiling piece of architecture as Brutalist, but its inverted ziggurat form, exposed concrete structure, andrigorous geometrical composition certainly resonate with its Anglo-American contemporaries. Centering on a tenebrous atrium lit from above by wind-

ventilated skylights, the building was critiqued for its aloofness and the claustrophobic nature of its offices, which lack transparent windows.

Nonetheless, it was viewed as important enough to the fledgling nation that it once appeared on a postage stamp. The four star-like polyhedrons standingastride the atrium's skylights presaged Neumann, Hecker, and Sharon's later modular housing experiments.

Sachio Otani & Taneo Oki, Religious Center, Tensho Kotai Jingu-Kyo Sect, Tabuse, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, 1964

A disciple of Kenzo Tange, Otani is best remembered for his Kyoto International Conference Center, whose canted concrete walls and beams mimic thetectonics of traditional Japanese carpentry at a monumental scale. This dynamic complex of bulky vertical towers and broad cantilevered terraces isinstead unapologetic in its modernity.

Built for a Shinto-based religion whose charismatic leader was born in the area, it is reminiscent of Denys Lasdun's National Theatre at London'sSouthbank Centre, but actually precedes that more famous building by several years.

Ahrends, Burton, Koralek, Theological College, Chichester, England, 1965

Like a steroidal version of Le Corbusier's Maisons Jaoul, the exterior walls of this cloistered college by the architects of Dublin's Berkeley Library bulgeand protrude to create skylit study nooks in each dormitory room.

As this complex illustrates, Brutalist characteristics were found not only in the monumental or institutional but also the modest and relatively domestic.It also illustrates that in addition to their structural exhibitionism, many Brutalist architects also pursued ingenious ways to bring natural light intootherwise fortress-like buildings.

John Andrews, Humanities and Science Wings, Scarborough College (Now University of Toronto Scarborough), Ontario, Canada, 1963-66

Informed by the urban thinking of Team 10 and by the site's location on a U-shaped ridge, Andrews' precocious masterplan and buildings forScarborough College offer a compelling example of the Brutalist megastructure. That these were the Australian architect's first independentcommissions — completed before his 30th birthday — only adds to their allure.

Centering on an open court between the two wings, the complex branches outward, with the sciences terracing down and the humanities built atop theridge. Each is traversed by an enclosed pedestrian street. Like most supposedly growth-oriented master planning projects of the 1960s, subsequentdevelopment has compromised the clarity of Andrews's organization, but the majestic, almost geological presence of these first wings remains powerful.

Emilio Duhart (w/ Christian De Groote and Roberto Goycoolea), United Nations Building (now Economic Commission for Latin American andthe Caribbean), Santiago, Chile, 1966

Easily the most Corbusian building included as part of this list, this UN building is clearly influenced by the master's late work, especially Chandigarh'sPalace of Assembly and the monastery of La Tourette. Yet Duhart's design is also inflected by climatic needs, seismic requirements, and local buildingtraditions.

Inside a suspended square of offices, a large courtyard is broken into four parts — similar in scale to Chilean courtyard houses — by several firmlygrounded, semi-autonomous figures accommodating particular functional needs. Access from these central parts to the offices is via second-levelbridges. The concrete surfaces facing these courts are given a variety of treatments, including decorative reliefs that adorn the spiraling, snail-likeassembly chamber.

John M. Johansen, Goddard Library, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1967

One critic compared this seemingly informal jumble of functional parts to "the backside of a refrigerator". Bringing parts together in irregulararrangement, Johansen tried to achieve an ineloquent, slang-like architecture informed more by circuit boards, highway overpasses and oilrigs than byLe Corbusier.

Impressive though the Goddard Library may be, it was in some ways a dry run for the formal strategy deployed in Johansen's even more dramaticMummers Theater in Oklahoma City, a flawed masterpiece that was recently demolished after years of uncertainty. An important figure in Americanarchitecture during the 1960s, Johansen left the spotlight as his convictions became more zealous and his ideas less pragmatic.

Ulrich Franzen, Alley Theater, Houston, Texas, 1968

Trained at Harvard during its postwar years under Walter Gropius, Franzen was a classmate of I M Pei, Ed Barnes, Paul Rudolph, and Johansen.Rejecting the stale "modernism" of Lincoln Center's uninspiring theaters, Franzen here favored an interpretation of the American Southwest's dramatic

geography and vernacular building traditions.

The Alley's fluid, curvilinear exterior is somewhat like an exposed concrete Guggenheim, albeit one punctuated by imposing octagonal turrets.Appropriate for car-crazy Houston, one can buy tickets via a drive-through ramp. One of the only bright spots for Brutalism this year was theannouncement that a nearly $50 million renovation and update is underway at the Alley, to be completed in 2015.

Shiv Nath Prasad, Shri Ram Centre for Art and Culture, New Delhi, India, 1969

Though an avowed Corbusian, Prasad was in fact educated in the UK in the early 1950s. He eventually rose to become a master planner of New Delhibefore leaving the civil service for private practice. Located near one of New Delhi's main chowks this virtuoso display of Prasad's structural andsculptural skill houses a performance space affording especially close proximity between audience and stage.

Its cubic exterior features a cantilevered upper level atop curvilinear figures housing exit stairs and the performance space itself. The upper level isshaded by deep brise soliel, and reveals its complex waffle structure.

Michael Abrahamson is a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan. Prior to his enrollment at Michigan,Michael taught architectural design, theory, and history at Kent State University. He has published criticism in numerous journals, and is a frequentcontributor to CLOG, for whom he guest edited the February 2013 issue on Brutalism. He also operates a Tumblr blog called F*ck Yeah Brutalism.

Related story: The Dezeen guide to Brutalist architecture

Brutalism, one of the 20th century's most controversial architecture movements, is back in vogue with design fans as nostalgia mixes with a new-found respectfor its socialist principals. In our new series, Dezeen will be revisiting some of the key projects from the Brutalist period, but first here's a short introductionfrom the Royal Academy's Owen Hopkins. More »

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