Brutalist buildings

[ScotM]

Museum

of Old and New Art (Mona) in Tasmania, Australia.

 

 

Not entirely brutalist on the outside, but it certainly borrows characteristics.

[ScotM]

Former Bulgarian Communist Headquarters.

[BadSeed84]

Why wouldn't you just post actual pictures of those?

[Mings]

Simple. He's doing illustrations of the buildings, and doing a great job at capturing the spirit of the buildings.

 

I do wish you'd include context with your illustrations though. No architecture exists within a blank slate.

[lopernv]

We've really become so far removed from the actual purpose of this thread, haven't we?

 

I agree with Josh, context would be nice in these. Especially the Bulgarian Communist HQ, seems like a starship without the surroundings.

[ScotM]

Apologies.

 

I started this thread so that I could share my designs, but everyone was sharing brutalist buildings in their area and it's been inspiring seeing structures I wouldn't normally see here in Canada.

 

 

[ScotM]

Monument to the uprising of the people of Kordun and Banija (simply known as Petrova Gora Monument) is a World War II monument built on Petrovac, the highest peak of Petrova Gora (English: Peter's Mountain), a mountain range in central Croatia. It was the site of one of the tragic World War II episodes, when about 300 desperate Serb peasants armed only with pitchforks, died attacking members of the Ustaše militia at the top of the mountain, during breakthrough of the enemy ring in 1942.

[ChicagoOakland]

Time to throw my alma mater, DePaul University, into this conversation. Behold, the Schmitt Academic Center, otherwise known as the SAC:

 

 

[ChicagoOakland]

Also, some Brutalist architecture has come down in Baltimore, where I happen to be visiting. The Mechanic Theatre sat right in the middle of downtown Baltimore; now, it's just a hole in the ground.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

[Mings]

1 hour ago, ScotM said:

Apologies.

 

I started this thread so that I could share my designs, but everyone was sharing brutalist buildings in their area and it's been inspiring seeing structures I wouldn't normally see here in Canada.

 

 

No apologies needed. Keep going at it. 

 

What I meant about context is show some of the surroundings in the illustrations, be it urban or natural. For example, the Norwegian Bremuseum I posted...you can't tell the whole story of the building without the surrounding mountains and glacier.

[ScotM]

3 hours ago, ChicagoOakland said:

Also, some Brutalist architecture has come down in Baltimore, where I happen to be visiting. The Mechanic Theatre sat right in the middle of downtown Baltimore; now, it's just a hole in the ground.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

Wow, that's really sad. It was a really nice building.

[Mings]

If you are gonna post John M. Johansen buildings, how's this elementary school in my hometown?

 

 

[leopard88]

13 hours ago, ChicagoOakland said:

Also, some Brutalist architecture has come down in Baltimore, where I happen to be visiting. The Mechanic Theatre sat right in the middle of downtown Baltimore; now, it's just a hole in the ground.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

The Mechanic was empty for about 10-15 years before it was torn down.  Multiple efforts were made to save it, but those efforts ultimately failed for two reasons:

 

1.  The backstage area was too small to accommodate modern touring productions of Broadway shows.

2.  Incorporating the existing structure into new retail, residential and/or commercial space turned out to be prohibitively expensive since the original structure was designed completely around the stage and seating areas.

[Sport]

Another question: What is the current state of brutalism? Is it a style left in the past, are we still constructing buildings in this way, have there been 21st century takes on Brutalism? 

[lopernv]

Yes, it is largely left in the past. The efforts surrounding Brutalism now-a-days are in rehabilitation and renovation.

There is still Brutalist-inspired work (mainly because later styles have been influenced by certain aspects of Brutalism, like the separation and expression of program and building function, emphasis of circulation, modularity, use of raw concrete) but there is no current work that is undeniably Brutalist.

[Mings]

What Matt said, there is some neo-brutalist work going on, such as OMA's Seattle Central Library, but it's more with expressing program and brings whatever materiality it has to a human scale as well. 

[DTConcepts]

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has a beautiful spot right in front of the iconic "Flatirons" rock formations, but ruins it with brutalist architecture.

[jr79]

My alma mater, University of Queensland in Brisbane has a number of James Birrell designed brutalist style buildings; my accommodations at Union College perhaps being the best of them.

 

 

Built from the late 1960s through the 70s it snakes through the existing trees from the site to prevent clearing. The original caravan style windows pictured above have now been replaced by more modern styles but the building remains otherwise the same. Some might find the concrete construction a little hard on the eyes, but when you see it amongst the very green landscape it's almost like a scene from some post-apocalyptic film where the forest has taken back over the city ruins.