Brutalism isn't named for being brutal.
The name sounds like a verdict, but it comes from a Swedish architect's term, 'nybrutalism', and got linked to the French béton brut, 'raw concrete'. The style aimed at honest, affordable buildings for post-war Britain. It became one of the most hated styles of all, and then, lately, strangely loved.
In 1950 the Swedish architect Hans Asplund coined 'nybrutalism', new brutalism, for a plain brick house in Uppsala whose steel beams, brick and concrete were left exposed. The British architects Alison and Peter Smithson took up 'new brutalism' in 1953 for their own designs, including Hunstanton School in Norfolk, where structure and services were left on show. In a 1955 essay the critic Reyner Banham popularised the term and tied it to the French phrases béton brut, raw concrete, and art brut, raw art.
Le Corbusier's raw-concrete work, above all his Unité d'habitation in Marseille of 1952, was a key inspiration. Banham tried to pin the style down with three tests: a clearly readable plan, structure plainly on display, and materials valued 'as found'. Brutalist buildings often express what goes on inside on their outside; at Boston City Hall, for instance, special rooms like the council chamber project visibly from the facade.
It fitted its moment. Post-war Britain needed cheap housing, schools and universities fast, and brutalism promised honest, economical buildings, often with a socialist, utopian streak; the Smithsons promoted 'streets in the sky'. It spread worldwide, especially to universities, courts and city halls, and in socialist countries, concrete could stand for equality against bourgeois ornament.
By the late 1970s it had fallen from favour, associated with urban decay and even totalitarianism. Part of the problem was weather: in damp climates, concrete streaks with water, moss and rust from its steel bars. The Economist noted that campaigns to demolish a building are usually aimed at a brutalist one. Yet since about 2015 a wave of books, maps and fans has driven a revival, and some British examples are now protected.
Source: Wikipedia — Brutalist architecture · Text summarised from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
