fcsarch 42 brutalism

City Hall, Boston The Brutalist style conjures of harsh images, but the word derives from the French beton brut, or rough concrete.  Nonetheless, it is well-named.  (1950 through the mid-

1980s)

•Raw and exposed materials emphasizing stark forms.

•Weighty textured surfaces and massiveness, created mainly by large areas of patterned

concrete.•Windows consist of tiny openings

•Combination of voids and solids giving walls an egg-crate appearance

•Mechanical systems are left exposed on the interior of the bare structure

Brutalism

Convent of La Tourette, (1958)

Yale’s School of Art and Architecture

New Haven, CT

1958 Paul Rudolph

School of Art and Architecture, Yale (1958-63) Paul Rudolph

Inspired both by Wright's Larkin Building and Le Corbusier's La Tourette, this sculptural building has been criticized for "style at the expense of content.” The asymmetrical building, on an asymmetrical site (a corner), dominates the setting with its bold towers, housing mechanical services, and huge slabs bridging the towers. The building has also been criticized for its lack of functionality and "mysterious" plan--39 different levels on seven stories.

detail

Concrete detail

entrance

entrance

plan

interior

section

Boston Public Library

Christian Science World Headquarters, tower Brutalism I.M.Pei 1968

Boston

Boston

NYC

Wilmington

Kingsbury ApartmentsTrenton, NJ

Building at Drexel University

Kline Biology Tower at Yale, Phillip Johnson 1964

Shalcross