Brutalist London Map

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Another prime example of the grand public sector architecture that dominates London’s Brutalist scene, the structure is built around the concept of making theatre accessible to the masses. As such the large Olivier Theatre seats 1,160 people, alongside two smaller theatres that also seat significant numbers. Apparently this distinctly curvy (for Brutalism) and attractive building has been earmarked for redevelopment (i.e to be demolished) so go and have a look at it while it still stands. This was a green light for us, plus there was no mention of not being allowed to have a camera on your person! Lakeside Terrace Barbican Centre. Photo by Max Colson The Barbican, 1965-76, Chamberlain, Powell and Bon Social housing at its most community-centric, the Alexandra Road Estate sits along the railway line in Camden. Its architect Neave Brown was working for the architecture department of Camden Council when he was commissioned to design the estate. Construction went severely over budget and took much longer than anticipated, but has since become highly acclaimed.

It’s no surprise that the building itself is unashamedly grand, ornamented with a complex layering of concrete that reveals itself in stages. Alexandra Road Estate Over the years, the movement has provoked strong reactions and arguments. Recently, a bid to grant listing status to the Brutalist Robin Hood Gardens estate in east London failed and the local MP called for it to be "brought down ASAP". National Theatre – photograph by Simon Phipps Much maligned, yet increasingly loved, brutalist architecture continually divides opinion. A quote by Jonathan Foyle, chief executive of the World Monuments Fund Britain said humorously, “It is damned by its name which comes from the French, béton brut, or raw concrete, but we use the same word [Brut] to describe Champagne and this perhaps sums up the dichotomy at the heart of this style”. Perfect for a walking tour or framing, this map is printed on Cyclus Offset 140 gsm, measures 420mm x 600mm (slightly larger than A2) open and folds down to 210mm x 150mm (slightly larger than A5). The map is protected by a wide band. Brutalism was part of a broader wave of mid-century-modernist functional design. Whereas modernism in visual art and literature is generally associated with the early twentieth century, and often with notions of complexity and difficulty, this mid-century modernism was notable for the iconic simplicity of its designs, and for its egalitarian emphasis on mass production and utility, an aesthetic rooted in the advances of the Bauhaus and Constructivism.Born in Hungary, Marcel Breuer began his career as a craftsman and designer in the Bauhaus. Renowned for his innovative tubular steel furniture inspired by the shape of bicycle handlebars, he went on to adapt his sense of sculptural form to architecture. His architectural style went through several phrases before he developed his final, Brutalist-inspired approach. Built as the Whitney Museum of Art, the Breuer Building was described in 1966 by New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable as "the most disliked building" in the city, though she also noted, Breuer's "thoughtful planning and sensitive artistry in the use of materials" to create a "museum raised to the level of architectural art." Separated by a square on which Westminster Cathedral is located, this development originally comprised two parts – BP House to the right of the cathedral if facing it and Ashdown House to the left. Brutalism challenged traditional notions of what a building should look like by showing its construction and not disguising materials," said the organisation. "Most were built from concrete which was functional and affordable – important factors as Britain was rebuilt after 1945." Barbican Centre– photograph by Simon Phipps

Designed by Richard Seifert and completed in 1966 it was described by the Royal Fine Art Commision as having an ‘elegance worthy of a Wren steeple’. Note how the gentle v-shaped window mullions soften and add interest to this slender, Massive period tour de force. As such, things like lift shafts, ventilation ducts, staircases – even boiler rooms, were integrated into the fabric of the building in ways that celebrated them as distinct features rather than hidden away. The rest of the Southbank Centre, of course, is one big concrete playground; from the hodgepodge of sprouting mushroom columns and jumbled geometries of the Hayward Gallery, to the graffiti-slathered ramps and columns of the undercroft skatepark, this place is brutalism 101 for any Londoner. The best thing is, you can explore from top to bottom, inside and out. Splurge in a brutalist shopping centre A shopping centre that you also want to live in. Image: LondonistOccupied by the BT Group (formerly British Telecom), the cast aluminium totem pole-like sculpture in the courtyard (below left) is called the “Seven Ages of Man” and is the work of Richard Kindersley. It was commissioned by Post Office Telecommunications and unveiled in 1980. Lasdun laid down the aesthetic foundations for the South Bank when he completed the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall almost a decade ahead of his National Theatre. It is concrete at its most diverse –a patchwork of textures and geometric forms that rise up from the river Thames. The Hayward Gallery contains five exhibition spaces and three outdoor sculpture courts. Terraces and ramps link the galleries, the uppermost of which is lit by natural light that is allowed to enter through controlled roof windows. Moshe Safdie was born and raised in Israel, moving to Canada with his family as a teenager. He was influenced as an architect by his experience living in a kibbutz (a communal settlement in Israel), as well as by the architecture of Le Corbusier and Metabolism, a Japanese post-World War Two movement that advocated for the use of organic forms in buildings, manifested in complex webs of prefabricated modules, as in Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower (1972).