Brutalism Brutalism architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement. Examples are typically very linear, fortress like and blockish, often with a predominance of concrete construction.

Uses: Government buildings,Low-rent housing Shopping centersAnd eventually designers adopted the look for other uses such as college buildings.

Characteristics -it is formed with striking repetitive angular

geometries.- -concrete is often used revealing the texture

of the wooden forms used for the in-situ casting , giving a rough, blocky appearance.

--Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabions.

--The common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's functions—ranging from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of the

building .

Example of Brutalism architecture

Boston City HallArchitect : Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles Location : Boston , Massachusetts

- The City Hall was designed to create an open and accessible place for the city's government, with the most heavily used public activities all located on the lower levels directly connected to the plaza. The major civic spaces, including the Council chamber, library and Mayor's office, were one level up, while the administrative offices were housed above these, behind the repetitive brackets of the top floors

-Many of the elements in the design have been seen as abstractions of classical design elements, such as the coffers and the architrave above the concrete columns.

The designers designed City Hall as divided into three sections, aesthetically and also by use. The lowest portion of the building, the brick-faced base, which is partially built into a hillside, consists of four levels of the departments of city government where the public has wide access. The brick largely transfers over to the exterior of this section, and it is joined by materials such as quarry tile inside. The use of these terra cotta products relates to the building's location on one of the original slopes of Boston—expressed in the open, brick-paved plaza—and also to historic Boston's brick architecture

The intermediate portion

of City Hall houses the

public officials :the Mayor, the City Council members, and the Council Chamber. The oversize scale and the protrusion of these

interior spaces on the outside—instead of burying them deep within the

building—reveal these important public functions to the passerby, and create a visual and symbolic connection between the city and its government.

The upper stories contain the city’s office space, used by civil servants not visited frequently by the public, such as the administrative and planning departments. This bureaucratic nature is reflected in the standardized window patterns, separated by pre-cast concrete fins, with an open office plan typical of modern office building style.

The top of the brick base was designed as an elevated courtyard melding the fourth floor of the city hall with the plaza. Because of security concerns, city officials in recent years blocked access to the courtyard and to the outdoor stairways to Congress Street and the plaza. The courtyard is occasionally opened up for events

Plan

Robin Hood Gardens architects :  Alison and Peter Smithson Location : Poplar, London

-Robin Hood Gardens is a council housing complex

 -It was intended as an example of the 'streets in the sky' concept: social housing characterized by broad aerial walkways in long concrete blocks

It covers about two hectares and consists of two long blocks, one of ten storeys, the other of seven, built from precast concrete slabs and containing 213 flats, surrounding a landscaped green area and a small hill made from construction spoil. The flats themselves are a mixture of single-storey apartments and two-storey marionettes, with wide balconies (the 'streets') on every third floor

-Robin Hood Gardens was built with panels of pre-cast concrete and is comprised of two horizontal structures.

 -In order to allow in more southern light, one of the buildings is ten stories high, while the other is seven stories .

- The garden is the center includes a rising hill .

Plans

Sections

FLOREY BUILDING ARCHITECT : JAMES STIRLING LOCATION : OXFORD, UK

The Queen’s College Florey building is the third and last building of  “The Red Trilogy” (the Leicester Engineering Faculty building and the Cambridge History Faculty building being the first two) designed by James Sterling, solidifying him as an irreplaceable facet in modern Architecture.

The structure is primarily a concrete frame with exposed, A-frame “feet” at the ground level. As with his previous university buildings, terra cotta tiles make up the majority of the façade.

 The building contains 74 dormitories over four levels, with a top level of double-height gallery rooms for graduates and a ground level equipped with a dining hall and other general rooms.

Plans and sections

Engineering Building, Leicester UniversityBy : JAMES STIRLING LOCATION : (LEICESER, UK)

"The Engineering Building comprises large ground-level workshops (heavy machinery), covering most of the available site, and a vertical ensemble consisting of office and laboratory towers, lecture theaters and lift and

staircase shafts".

The Engineering Building was the first post-Modernist building in the UK. The building goes against the grain of concrete 1960s tower blocks – it is designed to excite and to be exciting.