HTC 2200 - Architectural History of New England: Brutalism

Imani Elena, Imani Samira.
From the 1950s onward, Brutalist style spread all over the world and dedicate many breathtaking architectural movements to buildings. Architect’s opinion about this prominent approach to building design varies greatly. Brutalist style has known primarily for its aesthetics and property for institutional buildings with the use of functional reinforced concrete, steel, modular, and repetitive elements. Besides all advantages of brutalism, this style is sharply criticized for being cold, crude, cruel, and not appropriate for many climates. Brutalism also became popular with governmental and institutional buildings in modern architecture period and most of the well-known university campuses were built in this style. The purpose of this paper is to study the adaptability of brutalist style with institutional buildings and evaluate it from this point of view. Three institutional buildings have been selected as case studies for evaluating in this research such as The Royal College of Physicians, Brunel University Lecture Theatre, and Metu faculty of architecture. Due to this study, Brutalist style through their fire-resistant and durable materials which don’t need to be renovated constantly is suitable for institutional buildings.

Vidler, Anthony
The article discusses the 1950s British architectural movement New Brutalism. The author suggests that New Brutalism originated from the post-World War II culture of austerity in Great Britain and that the term was originally used by architects Alison and Peter Smithson. The author addresses the movement's adopted brick and steel as materials, how New Brutalism relates to the Modern Movement and modern architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, and architectural critic Reyner Banham's views on New Brutalism. Other topics include the Hunstanton school designed by the Smithsons, New Brutalism as a British art movement, and Banham's definition of New Brutalism.

The article discusses New Brutalism as a tendency in contemporary architecture. Topics include the history of Brutalism in 20th century architecture, the influence of British architecture on American Brutalism, and the relation of Brutalism to the Cold War. The relationship of history to architecture is addressed.

Barbara A. Campagna

Mould, Oli
Brutalism is an architectural form that is experiencing somewhat of a revival of late. This revival focuses almost purely on its aesthetics, but there is an ethical dimension to Brutalism that often gets overlooked in these narratives. This paper therefore reanalyses the original concepts and ethics of brutalist architecture with a reaffirmation of the original triumvirate of brutalist ethics as articulated by Raynar Banham as monumentality, structural honesty and materials 'as found'. The paper then articulates these through the literature on architectural affect to argue that brutalist ethics are continually 'enacted' via a relational monumentality that brings the building and its inhabitants together in the practice of inhabitation. Using the case study of Robin Hood Gardens in London, the paper posits that a 'brutalist politics' comes into light that can help catalyse a broader critique of contemporary neoliberalism.