What is Brutalist Architecture?

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathederal

Brutalist architecture started from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. The term originates from the French word for "raw", as Le Corbusier described his choice of material béton brut, meaning raw concrete in French. Architects Alison and Peter Smithson are believed to have coined the term "Brutalism" in the 1950s.

Brutalism is an architectural style featuring bold, structurally innovative forms that use raw concrete as their primary material.Brutalist buildings often reveal the means of their construction through unfinished surfaces that bear the imprints of the molds that shaped them. Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabions. Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be considered Brutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles including Constructivism, International Style, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism.

Today many of the rougher aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete façades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface, covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements. These elements are also found in renovations of older brutalist buildings. Also, many Brutalist buildings have been recently demolished or are currently under considerable threat.