What's your favourite bit of brutalist architecture?

[MichaelW2]

When in Tbilisi last new years eve, we visited a cousin who lived in a soviet era concrete tower block system built on a steep hill. In the dark I totally lost track of vertical orientation as we went up and down differebt levels and across the now famous skybridge. To me it was just a block flats where someone lived.

https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/alex-schoelcher-plato-1-brutalist-architecture-tbilisi/

 

[MichaelW2]

I always liked this building in Kaliningrad when I used to travel there regularly, long abandoned as it started collapsing soon after it was occupied:
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...and then there's Aylesbury....

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If you put this Aylesbury council block in Kaliningrad, nobody would notice...they should be twinned....

View attachment 556067

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It's nice.

 

[oldworld]

This is an apartment block in suburb of Nantes. It was designed by Corbusier and built in 1955. Visits to an apartment, which has remained unchanged since built, are possible by reservation.
My Architect friend loves it and was a huge fan when he was studying architecture.
I thinks it's rather ugly.

 

[MichaelW2]

This is an apartment block in suburb of Nantes. It was designed by Corbusier and built in 1955. Visits to an apartment, which has remained unchanged since built, are possible by reservation.
My Architect friend loves it and was a huge fan when he was studying architecture.
I thinks it's rather ugly.
View attachment 556076

Complete with built in school.

 

[Gunk]

View attachment 556030
Greyfriars bus station, Northampton, now blown up. RIP.

It didn’t work as a building, a miserable gloomy bus station and the Lumus offices above leaked for years.

 

[oldworld]

Yes, it was about creating a modern village but vertically and even had recreational facilities.
The apartments came with furniture and lighting.
I've not had a chance to visit the apartment but what is evident from walking around the outside is it's been well looked after.
The surrounding area isn't the best part of Nantes but I didn't see any litter or graffiti sprayed on walls.
Being quite old it could easily have turned into a slum but the apartments are still sought after.

 

[johnblack]

It didn’t work as a building, a miserable gloomy bus station and the Lumus offices above leaked for years.

Famously described by Kevin Macleod on C4 as the Gates of Hell !!

 

[sheddy]

if bridges are allowed - the Swan, Rotterdam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmusbrug#/media/File:Erasmusbrug,_September_2019.jpg

 

[Bonefish Blues]

They are, but that isn't Brutalist as far as I can see? This is, though

 

[Archie_tect]

Unite d'Habitation... built in Marseilles first : streets in the sky. Deck access apartments in the UK were dark, dangerous places but elsewhere they formed close knit communities... in the UK such apartment blocks were seen as dumping grounds for problem families- the architecture wasn't the issue, it was social issues behind the public facades that determined how they were perceived and maintained.

https://athome201dotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/unite-dhabitation_englishversion.pdf

 

[Grant Fondo]

They are, but that isn't Brutalist as far as I can see? This is, though
View attachment 556092

Is that Lancaster services on the M6?

 

[Archie_tect]

You have to remember that Thunderbirds sets were created to look like the contemporary architecture at the time... the fact that in-situ concrete could be cast rapidly into any shape or structure you wanted enabled towers and bridges to be designed as thinly and elegantly as possible... the fact that few designers applied this new free-form technology to buildings is a sad reflection of their architectural education which still colours our feelings to the possibilities.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Unite d'Habitation... built in Marseilles first : streets in the sky. Deck access apartments in the UK were dark, dangerous places but elsewhere they formed close knit communities... in the UK such apartment blocks were seen as dumping grounds for problem families- the architecture wasn't the issue, it was social issues behind the public facades that determined how they were perceived and maintained.

https://athome201dotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/unite-dhabitation_englishversion.pdf

Maybe it just wasn't the best way of housing people in cities? just more to do with land prices and maxing out units per acre?

 

[Archie_tect]

The Unite concept has worked in major cities across Europe... esp. East Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Madrid, Marseilles, Paris, Rome- major housing schemes which emerged from the rubble of WW2. The parkland setting of Unites created space and every apartment had a view of green space and trees... it was a different mentality and a different mind-set regarding private and public rented property which is still successful today, but it required people to be proud of where they lived- to have ownership of the public spaces.. something that has failed to capture minds in the UK.

Strong local leadership and management groups maintaining the public spaces create well ordered communities with a civic pride.

 

[MontyVeda]

They are, but that isn't Brutalist as far as I can see? This is, though
View attachment 556092

Is that Lancaster services on the M6?

Us locals still call it Forton Services.

I never considered it brutalist until someone posted a photo painting of it on the local FB group and described it as brutalist... and i guess it is.

edit... meant to post the painting of it

Brutalist...? I just see beauty. Whatever it is, I think it's fabulous. It's got 'almost home' written all over it, It'll be a sad day when it goes.