Get the whole family involved in the Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty exhibition with our interactive exercises in our Family Activity Sheet But photographer Simon Phipps feels it’s time we started to celebrate the post-war brutalist architecture that is all over the capital. Assuming effective economic managers (which is a big assumption) and the will to house the population (especially young families), the next step is to delegate financial and decision-making powers to plenipotentiary local authorities (reversing policies of the last thirty or more years). The brutalist Barbican Estate is located in the City of London Square Mile and we’d recommend you arrive via Barbican Tube station.

Brutal London: why does brutalism invoke such strong opinions Brutal London: why does brutalism invoke such strong opinions

Richard Seifart wielded unmatched influence over the London skyline – but not everyone loves the results. Take Centre Point as an example – unveiled in 1966, it was one of the tallest buildings in London… and one of its most hated. This piece of prime London brutalism also recently caught the attention of Grammy winner Harry Styles, with the brutalist Barbican taking a starring role in his music video for As It Was. To be fair, we always thought One Direction’s original music was also pretty Brutal. Denys Lasdun’s National Theatre is a splitter. In 2001 it managed to earn places in a Radio Times poll of both the most hated and most loved buildings in Britain.

Robin Hood Gardens, London

As it goes, the architect behind the project, Brian Housden had gone to visit influential Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld. It seems Housden was somewhat in awe of the Dutch master as when Rietveld asked him to see designs for his Hampstead house, Housden became shy and ashamed of his work. Today, those buildings are still some of the city’s most interesting to observe – The National Theatre, The Barbican, The South Bank Centre – they’re uncompromisingly different, unafraid to break with the ornate, decorative traditions that came before them. Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

About us – Brutal London Clothing

Softer and curvier than the other buildings in this guide, The Standard is Brutalist London done differently. We move out to London zone 5 for the ‘Number 1’ Croydon Brutalist building (not our ranking, but its actual title!).Alongside his own work, the exhibition features works from his collection of Art Brut (a phrase he coined, which translates as ‘raw art’). Acquired throughout his life, these works, and the artists that created them, profoundly impacted his approach to the making and meaning of art. Brutalism is, of course, not to everyone's taste but its virtues are a functionality in and of itself and an authenticity in its presentation of materials. It solved major post-war social problems only to create new ones but the failures (as I shall argue) are failures of society rather than of the architecture.

BRUTAL LONDON BRUTAL LONDON

The estates were the new society but only in its theorising. They presumed a type of human who would be happy to be functionally assigned their bit of space and play their role in society but this assumed they would have an autonomous role in society not merely be atomised by capitalism. Weston Rise. Picture: Simon Phipps / Extracted from Brutal London by Simon Phipps. (Image: Archant) Brutalist architecture sought to showcase the materials buildings were constructed of, as well as the functional components of its structures. It’s been allowed to decay a little over the years but one pro of building with concrete is that it’s not decayed much. In 2022 Seaforth Land was contracted to repair and refurbish the structure which is expected to be made into fancy offices, and possibly a retail centre. Tsentrosoyuz Building Moscow (Corbusier and Nicoli Kolli) CC BY SA 4.0 Image Ludvig14 Current Projects

Where To See Brutalism In London

Hampstead isn’t all rolling heaths and quaint, cottage feels. It’s also home to a brutalist building with quite an origin story…