TITLE: Beautifully Brutalist

Brutalist architecture is is much maligned in the public view but the design ethos - raw concrete, exposed structural elements and some signature artistic flourishes made the buildings stand out. Brutalist architecture found a home in universities, places of worship, municipal and leisure facilities as well as corporate buildings. Many of the residential and social housing developments were conceived as attempts to socially engineer post-war society as well as to quickly and inexpensively rehouse displaced populations. Many of these projects failed due to flawed vision, lack of funding and maintenance, but those which survive and flourish to this day do so because the design ethic has essentially held together, and communities have been created.

AUTHOR: David Boam (United Kingdom)