30 Pics That Perfectly Sum Up Brutalist Architecture, As Shared On This Online Page
Brutalism is an architectural style that prioritizes bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. It is generally associated with rough, unfinished surfaces, unusual shapes, and just an overall heavy look.
Originating in the 1950s and 1960s, brutalist buildings were popular in public housing projects, government buildings, and universities. Despite criticism for its rough appearance and perceived coldness, the style has gained a big following in recent years, and the Instagram account BRUTgroup is an excellent illustration of that.
Sharing pictures of brutalist aesthetics, it has garnered a following of 445K people (one of whom is a brilliant Polish composer, Hania Rani, who has a beautiful Instagram account of her own), and the number just keeps climbing. Continue scrolling to check out some of the account's most-liked uploads and see for yourself that structures can elicit strong emotions. Whether it's love or hate.
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Mask Of Sorrow (1996, Dedicated To The Memory For The Prisoners Of Gulag) Magadan, Russia Sculptor : Ernst Neizvestny
This Street Lamp In Wroclaw, Poland
Descending from modernism, Brutalism is said to be a reaction against the nostalgia of the 1940s. Derived from the Swedish phrase nybrutalism, the term "New Brutalism" was first used by British architects Alison and Peter Smithson for their pioneering approach to design.
The style was further popularized in a 1955 essay by architectural critic Reyner Banham, who associated the movement with the French phrases beton brut ("raw concrete") and art brut ("raw art").
The style was partly foreshadowed by the modernist work of other architects such as French-Swiss Le Corbusier, Estonian-American Louis Kahn, German-American Mies van der Rohe, and Finnish Alvar Aalto.
Chronicles Of Georgia, Tbilisi
Table. Author Stephan Schmitz
Ww2 German Observation Tower On Guernsey Island
Given the style's European roots, it's no surprise that many of the structures that appear on this Instagram account are from that continent.
One of Brutalism’s most famous critics is King Charles III of England, whose speeches and writings on architecture have criticized Brutalism, calling many of the structures "piles of concrete" and likening them to "a monstrous carbuncle."
One Of Two Twin Underground Reservoirs In Forstenried Park Holding The Drinking Water For Munich, Germany
High Island Reservoir East Dam, Sai Kung East Country Park, Sai Kung, Hong Kong
For anyone who wants to know, the objects break the water to stop it slamming into whatever object they are against.
Torres Blancas In Madrid. Photo By Gregor Pieplow
Named Torres Blancas (White Towers) because 1) the original project was 2 towers, but finally only one was built; and 2) they used the word "blancas" (white) because the original project included a mix of marble power and concrete for the facade. It's a remarkable project, a combination of organic (a building that grews like a tree) and brutalist (construction materials on view), for a block of luxury apartments (current sale prices are from €1,000,000). But, yes, a high pressure water cleaning would make a point.
And his arguments were valid. Brutalism's functionality made it the perfect fit for cash-strapped post-war Europe, seeking to rebuild urban centers for growing populations. It became the go-to choice for many low-cost housing projects and, as a result, in Western Europe, Brutalism became a symbol of poverty. In Eastern Europe this was compounded; elision between projects and the governments that commissioned them often precluded appreciation of Brutalism's merits.
Backup Power Station, Sweden
Burroughs Wellcome Building, Paul Rudolph Architect Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, 1972
London Aquatics Centre, 2014
Glencairn Tower, Motherwell, Scotland Photo By Les Shafer
"A lot of post-war developments were really badly designed and badly maintained housing estates," Peter Chadwick, the author of This Brutal World told CNN.
"Flats, many stories up, don't have direct access to outside space, so the 'outside' is on the ground level. There's these negative, redundant spaces around the building, which prompts anti-social behavior. Brutalism has suffered because of this."
Chuvash State Opera And Ballet Center, Chuvash Republic
1994. The Hope For Peace (Espoir De Paix) Monument Is A Monument In Yarze, Lebanon
Made to celebrate the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990. It was designed by the artist Armand Fernandez
I should imagine a lot of buildings in Lebanon look like this, and not intentionally either.
Art Work: Martin Loureiro
Beirut. Photo By Serge Najjar
Although the Brutalist movement was largely over by the late 1970s and early 1980s, it has experienced a resurgence of interest since about 2015.
Many of the defining 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 features are also found in renovations of older Brutalist buildings, such as the redevelopment of Sheffield’s Park Hill in South Yorkshire, England.
Construction Of The Atomium, The Belgian Pavilion For The World Expo 58 In Brussels, Belgium, 1957. Photo By Dolf Kruger
Solna Centrum Station, Stockholm, Sweden
Offices Of The Central Social Institution, Prague, Czechoslovakia - Ca.1937
Oooo! I want one of these in my house! Make it easier to get the waffle maker down from the top shelf!
This Is The View Looking Up To A Spiralling Staircase, Seen Inside The Main Tower Of A Church In France. Building: St. Joseph's Church
Location: Le Havre, France Architect: Auguste Perret
However, its future remains cloudy. "Unfortunately it's a lot more expensive to preserve the buildings than to knock them down and build something else in their place," Chadwick explained.
"[Brutalism] is definitely having its moment, which is great. I just hope it continues, the interest and the preservation of buildings, before we lose any more."
Climbing Holidays, 2017
This model of a hotel on stilts brings to mind Tatzu Nishi’s suspended spaces, in which rooms, and even functioning hotels, are installed around historical public monuments
Dam Tunnel In The Woods Outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Abandoned Modernist Hotel In Bosnia
I did two tours in Bosnia with the UN.. and one with NATO (although the last UN one kinda overlapped so all we had to do to switch to NATO was swap our UN berets out with our native unit's). We moved around quite a bit, but back end of '94 we were based mainly near Kislejack just outside of Sarajevo in a bombed out hotel. It was fun times.... and s**t times.. all rolled into one.
Singapore Photo By Leslie Heng
House Lim-Millan (Also Leme House) By Paulo Mendes Da Rocha Sao Paulo, Brazil 1970-74
Chongqing, China
Tbilisi, Georgia
Duga, Outside Of Chernobyl, Was A Soviet Experimental Over-The-Horizon Radar System. It Was Developed For The Soviet Abm Early-Warning Network. The System Operated From 1976 To 1989
Congresso Nacional Do Brasil, Brasília, Brazil. 60s Architect: Oscar Niemeyer
Any Thoughts?
Temppeliaukio Church Helsinki, Finland. 1969 Architects: Timo And Tuomo Suomalainen
No way. This is not a Brutalist architecture. I've been there. It is in fact a perfect blend of nature and structure. Some of the natural stone is maintained as interior walls. A gorgeous copper dome is the ceiling. The slates let in natural light. Highly recommend looking up more photos. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temppeliaukio_Church
Banco Hipotecario (Ex Banco De Londres) Buenos Aires Argentina Arquitecto Clorindo Testa Photo By Silvia Otero
Haludovo Resort, Malinska, Croatia, Built In The Early 70-S Architect: Boris Magas
Bonaventure Hotel Designed By John Portman, 1976; Downtown Los Angeles, California
The Ryugyong Hotel Is An Unfinished 105-Story, 330-Metre-Tall (1,080 Ft) Pyramid-Shaped Skyscraper In Pyongyang, North Korea. (Baikdoosan Architects & Engineers)
University Of East Anglia Norwich, UK By Feilden And Mawson
Designed By Manfred Hermer, Mannie Feldman And Rodney Grosskopf, The Ponte Tower, Completed In 1975, Quickly Became A Monument To Failed Architectural And Social Fantasies Of A Neatly Organized Society
During its existence, the core of the 173 m high cylinder was filled with trash, apartments were used as drug stations and brothels, and gangsters collected rent. Even now, after a decade of restoration, standing on the natural rock at its base, with rain coming down from the heavens, evokes an experience of being in an architecture that belongs to the order of the pyramids
Fountain Dedicated To José Martí, A Figurehead Of Cuban Independence, And The Revolutionary Leader Abel Santamaría, Santiago De Cuba
Water Tower, Near Moncontour In Brittany. Photo By Lauren Marsolier
Bełchatów Power Station And Osiedle Dolnośląskie Subdivision, Poland
Some how i was waiting to see Tom Cruise in his white plane/helicopter/hovercraft flying thing, with the M82 gorrrrrgeous music on the background.... ( Talking about Oblivion )
Control Room
Google Search By Image Thinks It Is In Sao Paolo
Edifício penthouse, são Paulo, Brazil. Every single geography book has a pic of that building. Check out a zoomed out picture to understand why
Brutalism Moments
The Biosphere Is A Museum In Montreal Dedicated To The Environment
It is located at Parc Jean-Drapeau, on Saint Helen's Island in the former pavilion of the United States for the 1967 World Fair, Expo 67. The museum's geodesic dome was designed by Buckminster Fuller
African Renaissance Monument Dakar - Senegal Architect: Pierre Goudiaby
I think I remember seeing this monument on here before. Then the text said it was made for some narcissistic guy who wanted to be seen as the good looking hero or something but was an idiot in real life…… please correct me if I am confusing this with something else.
Ruin Of Haludovo Palace Hotel As Seen From Pool Area. Island Krk North Of Malinska, Croatia
Erosion Control In Japan. Photo By Yasushi Okano
Brazilian Embassy, Buenos Aires, 1978-89. Olavo Redig De Campos, Oswaldo Cintra De Carvalho
Sentimentalism
Castillo Pindu In Asuncion, Paraguay. Architect Jenaro Pindú
Borisov, Belarus Photo/Collage By Gera More
Aogashima Island, Japan. Concrete Cell Anchor Ties. Photo By Norio Nakayama
Apartment Complex, Ivry-Seine, France, 1969-75 Architect: Renée Gailhoustet, Jean Renaudie
Hyatt Regency San Francisco, San Francisco, California Built In 1973 Architect John Portman & Associates
And featured in many films, including High Anxiety (Mel Brooks satire of Hitchcock's Vertigo) and OJ's starring vehicle Towering Inferno.
Panorama Hotel Ski Resort In Štrbské Pleso, Czechoslovakia, 1970
Monjitas, San Antonio, Chile
The Alexandra Road Estate In Camden, North London, Which Is Now Grade II*-Listed
It was designed in 1968 by architect Neave Brown and built in 1978 photo by Ann Cator
Tanbrook Abbey Church Yorkshire, England
Completion: September 2015 Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. Photo by Dan Kitwood
Ammanauz Hotel (Abandoned) In Dombai, The Karachay-Cherkess Republic 1982-85
Cairo, Egypt. Photo By Karim Shafey
Playground In Donetsk
"L'immeuble En Vague" (The Wave Building), Resort Of La Baule, Brittany, France Built In The 1970-S By Pierre Doucet. Photo By Etienne Gérard
Petrol Station, Slovakia, Designed By Atelier Sad
Douglas House Harbor Springs, Michigan 1971 - 1973 Richard Meier Photographer: Carol M
eh. gorgeous but not brutalism. I'd totally live here though...it's lovely
Palácio Do Planalto, Brazil, Brasília, Built: 1958-60, Oscar Niemeyer
Cultural Center Of The Philippines, Manila. Architect: Leandro Locsin, 1969
Haven't these people heard of escalators? My knees are throbbing just looking at all those stairs.
A Vividly-Coloured Apartment Block In Singapore
Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant
I bet it rains there frequently. The steam is pure and clean. This is the the safest and most efficient power system humans can produce.
Hotel Panorama, By Zdeněk Řihák, Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia, 1967
Social Housing. Pardis Town East Of Tehran, Iran
Brooklyn Army Terminal. Architect: Cass Gilbert, 1918-19. Photo By Andreas Feininger
Verne High Angle Battery, Portland, Dorset, England. Photo: Marc Wilson
San Diego Freeway
National Library, (Collage) Minsk, Belarus, The Actual Building Was Completed In 2006. Architects: Viktor Kramarenko And Michael Vinogradov
Chapel Of The Holy Cross Was Built Between 1955-1956 In Sedona, Arizona, USA By Marguerite Brunswig Staude
Power Lines Are Crushed With The Weight Of Four Days Of Accumulated Freezing Rain In Boucherville Near Montreal, Canada, January 9, 1998
What Do You Have In Mind Seeing This Scene ?
Mercedes Garage – Alfonso Molina Ave, Spain This Ghost Car Dealership Had Just One Car Left Over
Apparently, the car was assembled using parts found in around the garage and was abandoned when the dealership, and later the garage, closed up shop
Here Is A Gem For U All!
Traffic Control Tower, Sofia, Bulgaria
The World Trade Center In 1975, Photo By Jean-Pierre Laffont
Palacio Do Buriti Brasilia Image By Bernie Dechant
Espresso Buffet In Budapest, Hungary. Cca 1960s
Now This!
Round House In Moscow, Russia Architect: Eugene Stamo Et Al. 1972
Ezüstpart Hotel Siófok, Hungary Built In 1978-1983 Architect: Ernő Tillai
Todoroki Residence, (House Within A Hous), Ichikawa, Japan, (1976) By Hiromi Fujii
Concrete Block Of Flats Abandoned In 1964, Located In Kamchatka, (Russia), The Former Fishing Village Kirovsky
The Motherland During Restoration
The Citroen Karin #brutgroup Photo © 1996 – 2019 The Hagerty Group, Llc
Beirut Spiral Beirut, Lebanon, 2007 Photo By Sean Hemmerle
Handrails? There are times when I can't tell the difference between a building under construction and a building being demolished. This is one of those times.
Summer House, Bydgoszcz, Poland
The Aillaud Towers (Cloud Towers) Nanterre, France, By Architect Émile Aillaud, 1977. Photo By Alex Maclean
Traffic Control Booth. Chernivtsi, Ukraine. 1970s
Telecommunication Office, Detail Skopje, North Macedonia 1972-74
Urban Planning by Kenzo Tange (1960s) Architect Janko Konstantinov (c) BACU photo by Dumitru RUSU
Restaurant Vasara (Summer) Palanga, Lithuania. Built In 1967 Architect: Aleksandras Eigirdas. Photo By Geert Goiris
Castillo Pindu In Asuncion, Paraguay. Architect Jenaro Pindú
China In China’s Hebei Province, You Can Stay At The Tianzi Hotel Which Is Shaped Like Three Chinese Deities
Tianzi loosely translates to Son of Heaven The Tianzi Hotel was built sometime between 2000 and 2001. The three gods represent figures dating all the way back to the Ming Dynasty. The guy in blue is Shou, and he’s associated with longevity. The one is red is Fu, and he’s associated with fortune. The guy in green is Lu, and he’s associated with prosperity. The entire body of each is a hotel building, and the rooms go all the way up
In 1925 Frank Lloyd Wright Entered This And Other Sketches As His Vision Of A Master Plan For The Los Angeles Civic Center
this *must have been* inspo for The Capital in the Hunger Games movies.
Seagram Building, 375 Park Avenue, New York, United States, Built: 1958. Architect: Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe; Philip Johnson
La Cour Des Voraces, Lyon, France, Circa 1840 (Silk Industry) Located On The Slopes Of The Croix Rousse
Kowloon Walled City, Demolished Around 1992. #brutgroup Photo Via The Book City Of Darkness
The Pig Sty Alley, where the main characters of Kung Fu Hustle lives is based on this place. It's the only neighborhood immune to gangsters rules the city because they are so poor they hold no interest for the gang.
Sleipner A Is A Combined Accommodations, Production And Processing Offshore Platform At The Sleipner East Gas Field In The Norwegian Sector Of The North Sea
It is a Condeep-type oil platform, built in Norway.
Let's face it - sometimes, Brutalism is completely appropriate.
Deaton’s House, Genesee Mountain, Golden, Colorado, 1963-66
Atomic age modern. not brutalism. but truly lovely and deceptively large. i drive past this often. or used to...is it still there, fellow Coloradans?
Jean Piaget - Psychologist, Biologist, Pedagogist, And Swiss Philosopher Photographed In His Office. For When They Tell You You're Messy
Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, Armenia
I find this interesting because the capacity of the reactor(s) is roughly similar to reactors I operated on carriers but the control room is huge by comparison and way more switches. Possibly more valves and things are automated. I also don't understand the dorky hats. They look like they should be working in the bakery of a Safeway store.
China’s Coal Addiction - Daily Life, Photo By Kevin Frayer, 2016
Ddr Pankow/East Berlin Swimming Pools During Late 1960s
López Balan, Proyecto Conceptual “Church Without God” (“Una Iglesia Sin Dios”,) By Balan Israel
Ryugyong Hotel , Pyongyang, 1987-92 Baikdoosan Architects & Engineers
Mounts to a giant mantis... I will leave it up to your own imagination if it still retains its head, or its been eaten by a female mantis...
Magnitogorsk, Russia. Photo By Sergey Karpukhin
Have A Splendid Day With Photo By John Dominis
World Trade Center Towers, Lower Manhattan, New York Built: 1968-70, Destroyed: 2001 Architect Minoru Yamasaki
The title here is "115 Pics That Perfectly Sum Up Brutalist Architecture" but in fact only a short few of these entries represent brutalist architecture. Brutalism isn't a description of how you feel when you look at one of these pictures, it was a specific movement in architecture, like Art Deco, Nuevo, International, Gothic. More entries here are mislabeled Brutalist than are correct.
Thank you for saying this. I got halfway and thought "someone has no idea what Brutalism is.
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The amount of non brutalism in this list was starting to straight up enrage me
For me the problem with Brutalism is twofold. Firstly, it was often used for social housing as an excuse for cost cutting or poor design. Stack a pile of concrete boxes high and stick a few windows in it, job done. Ended up with buildings which were poor quality and not designed for actual living. Secondly, when they are designed well, they tend to look great as long as they are impeccably maintained, and surrounded by a landscape designed to compliment it. As soon as you let streaks appear on the concrete, paint to fade or replace a lawn with car parking, they are very quick to become oppressive and bleak
We have a Brutalist building where I work and it's a listed building (protected because of historical significance). This means we can't do anything to the exterior despite the building no longer being fit for purpose and being an eye sore.
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They never did. They simply misunderstood that the physically closer people get to one another the more they hate one another.
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Some of these buildings are stunning, Im a fearce fan of " distopian " looking buildings, and industrial " decor ", and some of the stuff here is amazing
At least two dozen pictures don't have anything to do with Brutalism architecture.
The more lists that I see that are centered around a vocabulary word, the more that I think people have simply run out of ways to label lists, coupled with having discovered the thesaurus in desperation (or did searches for "another word for" because they don't know the word "synonym"), but not the patience to check the actual definition in the dictionary.
I grew up around several examples of Brutalism. Pictures don’t do them justice. Up close they have a power to them. So rough and foreboding, and BIG. Not like any other building you’ve seen. I have soft spot for this style. I will say a lot of these photos weren’t showing Brutalism architecture.
Brutalism? The list is mostly not Brutalism in the slightest. Quite a lot of modernism, art nouveau, neo-gothic, art deco.
I.M. Pei designed the Paul Mellon Arts Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT. I wish there was a way to include it in this list. a6a026f6c1...27483a.jpg 
If you liked that list you will love https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Old_Millfun
Brutalism just means bare concrete. Bare concrete has huge advantages over other building materials such as brick, glass, timber and steel. High strength concrete has a similar material properties (strength, elasticity etc.) to aluminium. Concrete is considered a "smart building material" because it is self-healing. But for good aesthetics it needs top quality formwork (not timber palings) and rust-proof reinforcement when in thicknesses less than 100 mm.
while i disagree that brutalism is just bare concrete, you are right about it being a wonderful building material. and underutilized. Although the process to make it IS fairly damaging.
Load More Replies...
The title here is "115 Pics That Perfectly Sum Up Brutalist Architecture" but in fact only a short few of these entries represent brutalist architecture. Brutalism isn't a description of how you feel when you look at one of these pictures, it was a specific movement in architecture, like Art Deco, Nuevo, International, Gothic. More entries here are mislabeled Brutalist than are correct.
Thank you for saying this. I got halfway and thought "someone has no idea what Brutalism is.
Load More Replies... The amount of non brutalism in this list was starting to straight up enrage me
For me the problem with Brutalism is twofold. Firstly, it was often used for social housing as an excuse for cost cutting or poor design. Stack a pile of concrete boxes high and stick a few windows in it, job done. Ended up with buildings which were poor quality and not designed for actual living. Secondly, when they are designed well, they tend to look great as long as they are impeccably maintained, and surrounded by a landscape designed to compliment it. As soon as you let streaks appear on the concrete, paint to fade or replace a lawn with car parking, they are very quick to become oppressive and bleak
We have a Brutalist building where I work and it's a listed building (protected because of historical significance). This means we can't do anything to the exterior despite the building no longer being fit for purpose and being an eye sore.
Load More Replies... They never did. They simply misunderstood that the physically closer people get to one another the more they hate one another.
Load More Replies... Some of these buildings are stunning, Im a fearce fan of " distopian " looking buildings, and industrial " decor ", and some of the stuff here is amazing
At least two dozen pictures don't have anything to do with Brutalism architecture.
The more lists that I see that are centered around a vocabulary word, the more that I think people have simply run out of ways to label lists, coupled with having discovered the thesaurus in desperation (or did searches for "another word for" because they don't know the word "synonym"), but not the patience to check the actual definition in the dictionary.
I grew up around several examples of Brutalism. Pictures don’t do them justice. Up close they have a power to them. So rough and foreboding, and BIG. Not like any other building you’ve seen. I have soft spot for this style. I will say a lot of these photos weren’t showing Brutalism architecture.
Brutalism? The list is mostly not Brutalism in the slightest. Quite a lot of modernism, art nouveau, neo-gothic, art deco.
I.M. Pei designed the Paul Mellon Arts Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT. I wish there was a way to include it in this list. a6a026f6c1...27483a.jpg
If you liked that list you will love https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Old_Millfun
Brutalism just means bare concrete. Bare concrete has huge advantages over other building materials such as brick, glass, timber and steel. High strength concrete has a similar material properties (strength, elasticity etc.) to aluminium. Concrete is considered a "smart building material" because it is self-healing. But for good aesthetics it needs top quality formwork (not timber palings) and rust-proof reinforcement when in thicknesses less than 100 mm.
while i disagree that brutalism is just bare concrete, you are right about it being a wonderful building material. and underutilized. Although the process to make it IS fairly damaging.
Load More Replies... 