Brutalist Architecture

Brutalism: Le Corbusiers
first Unité d'Habitation is

arguably the most
influential Brutalist
building of all time. With
its human proportions,
chunky pilotis and interior
"streets", it redefined
high-density housing by
reimagining a city inside
an 18-storey slab block.
Chandigarh was one
of India's first planned cities,
and was Le Corbusier's
largest project. He was
commissioned to design the
masterplan in the early
1950s, after being approved
by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's
first prime minister. The city
was to serve as the new
independent Indian
government's regional
capital in Punjab, after the
previous capital, Lahore,
became part of Pakistan.
As the precursor to the
larger and more famous
Trellick Tower, Ernö
Goldfinger's Balfron Tower
in east London was a
testbed for the architect's
utopian housing ideals.
Completed in 1967 Balfron
was the first chance for the
Hungarian-born architect to
realise a vision for large-
scale public housing that
had been in development
for over 30 years.
Denys Lasdun's National
Theatre (completed 1976)
– one of London's best-
known and most divisive
Brutalist buildings – is a
layered concrete
landscape that Prince
Charles once described
as being like "a nuclear
power station".
The design for the
building was based on
Lasdun's idea of
"architecture as urban
landscape."
The Avala TV Tower by
Uglješa Bogunović,
Slobodan Janjić, and
Milan Krstić was
completed in 1965, but
destroyed by bombing in
1999 and rebuilt in 2010.
The housing estate, Robin
Hood Gardens, was
designed by British
architects and Alison and
Peter Smithson and
completed in 1972. Like
several of the UK's post-
war housing estates, it is
being demolished before
the end of its expected
life.
Built in 1974 in east London,
Robin Hood Gardens is seen
by many as an important
example of brutalist housing. It
consists of two concrete slab
blocks, with raised walkways,
or "streets in the sky", that
were designed to foster a
sense of community. The
demolition of the estate is
taking place despite a long-
running campaign to save the
building, supported by
architects including Zaha
Hadid, Toyo Ito, Richard
Rogers.
The Rozzol Melara complex
is one of the biggest and
most controversial social
housing facilities ever built in
Trieste (Celli Aldo e Luciano,
1969-83. It was inspired by
Le Corbusier’s La Tourette
and, with its large circular
voids, is reminiscent of the
architecture of Louis I. Kahn.
The complex was designed
with four main slabs
arranged as a large square
resting on a hill.
The complex was
completed in 1983 when
some of the social models
at the base of the project
were already obsolete,
which is why some
common spaces (shops
and indoor walkways) re-
mained incomplete at first
and this contributed
negative impressions of
the building.
With originally seven
stepped blocks, the “Sails
of Scampia” were one of
the largest social housing
projects in Italy (Francesco
Di Salvo 1962-75). Given
that most of the service
facilities, such as stores
and kindergartens were
never realized, the
complex swiftly fell into
disrepair and became a
social flashpoint.
Strongly in need of
modernization, three of
the seven buildings were
torn down in 1997–2003.
The group Vulcanica
Architettura tried to save
the remaining buildings.
Demolition started in
January 2019.
The complex has formed
the backdrop for several
mafia movies and
documentaries.
BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE
Scampia le Vele Scampia le Vele

The Zeitz Museum of
Contemporary Art
Africa (Zeitz
MOCAA), was was
inaugutated on 22
September 2017 at
Cape Town’s V&A
Waterfront. It is the
world’s largest
museum dedicated to
contemporary art
from Africa and its
diaspora and is
designed by
Heatherwick Studio.
Towards an architecture
by Le Corbusier, the
Grain Silos.
The museum is housed in
9,500 sq metres of custom
designed space, spread
over nine floors, carved
out of the monumental
structure of the historic
Grain Silo Complex. The
silo, disused since 1990,
stands as a monument to
the industrial past of Cape
Town, at one time the
tallest building in South
Africa.
The galleries and the
atrium space at the centre
of the museum have been
carved from the silos’
dense cellular structure of
forty-two tubes that pack
the building.
The museum centres
around a huge atrium,
based on the shape of a
single grain that was
scaled up to span the full
height of the 27-metre-
high structure.
In the places where tubes
were cut back, the edges
were polished to create a
visible contrast between
the rough aggregate of
the old concrete.
Laminated glass was also
added to give a mirrored
finish.

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Brutalism: Le Corbusiers

first Unité d'Habitation is

Scampia le Vele Scampia le Vele

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