New Brutalism (1992)
Excerpt fr. John A. Walker’s Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945, 3rd. ed.
artdesigncafé | café library | Published 17 May 2011
This text is an excerpt from Walker’s 1992 glossary previously published by Library Association Publishing, London.
New Brutalism
New Brutalism is a tendency in British architecture primarily associated with Alison and Peter Smithson— especially their work during the period 1953-5— and the critical writings of Reyner Banham. New Brutalism was not so much a style as “a programme or an attitude to architecture” or, as the Smithsons put it, “an ethic, not an aesthetic”. Above all, the New Brutalists waged a moral crusade against the diluted versions of modem architecture produced in England in the post-1945 period, and against the compromises they felt even the masters of the modern movement were making. The Smithsons set out to re-establish the original strength and integrity of modern architecture, in buildings like the Hunstanton secondary school, by expressing structure and services honestly, and by using materials truthfully, sensuously in the manner of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Japanese architecture.
The term “New Brutalism” derived from “Neo-Brutalist” coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund. It had connotations of ’béton brut’: Le Corbusier’s rough, textured building surfaces— concrete imprinted with the grain of the wooden shuttering. In London this kind of architecture was exemplified by two buildings made from grey concrete, the Hayward Gallery and the National Theatre, which are part of the South Bank arts complex. The style may have been popular with radical architects, but as far as the public was concerned this particular variety of New Brutalism was simply brutal. The term “New Brutalism” was not limited to architecture: it also encompassed the art brut of Jean Dubuffet, the paintings of Magda Cordell and the sculptures of Eduardo Paolozzi.
References and further readings
> Reynor Banham. “Brutalism”. In G. Hatje’s Encyclopedia of modern architecture. (Thames & Hudson, 1963), pp. 61-4.
> The New Brutalism: Ethic or aesthetic? (Architectural Press, 1966).
> Robin Boyd. “The sad end of New Brutalism”, Architectural Review, 142(845), July 1967, pp. 9-11.
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