Three Myths About Brutalism

Neave Brown, the architect of the Alexandra Road housing estate in London (above, click to enlarge) as well as other brutalist housing projects, has recently been recognized for his work. In architectural terms, this is undiluted brutalism, with nearly all exterior surfaces as bare concrete or glass.

The article at the second link above summarizes the fortunes of the estate, from being used as a symbol of decay to having a lot of long-term happy residents. A structure like this can’t hide – it doesn’t look like traditional housing and it’s quite large – so it has to succeed or fail while in the spotlight.

The first myth I wanted to mention is quite simple: that brutalism is universally reviled among ordinary people and only liked by architects or people with architectural training. The Guardian article at the second link makes it clear that a lot of the people at Alexandra Road love living there specifically because of the features that set it apart, including its appearance and the megastructure aspects of joined buildings.

The second myth is even simpler, that brutalism, unlike other styles, can’t be used for residential buildings, or at a small scale. This is a big building only by the standards of London housing. In New York its size would be unremarkable, although its architecture obviously would not be. The fact that there are relatively few brutalist apartment houses and even fewer row houses or single-family houses has more to do with the social issues surrounding the style’s birth and use and less to do with its fitness for any given purpose.

The third myth is directly related to our work. Exposed concrete is not somehow uniquely ill-suited as a facade material. It does not necessarily deteriorate faster than other materials. The exposed concrete of brutalism got a bad reputation because (a) a lot of the time the original construction was not of the proper quality. Exposed concrete has to be placed and finished more carefully than concrete that will be hidden from the weather, and this was unfortunately not always recognized before construction. Even more important, every material will deteriorate if not maintained, but somehow people got the idea that they could simply ignore the exposed concrete and it would stay in good shape forever.