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Barbican is one of the best examples of how the British did brutalist architecture in their own way. This residential complex has around two thousand apartments, and it was built in an area devastated by bombings during the Second World War.
We were there for the second time last Sunday and took too many pictures of it.
Sears Building (1971)
I wanted to shoot a picture straight up from under this cantilevered building but it isn't easy because it's all fenced off during its retrofit. I had the perfect spot picked out but when, a few days later, the clouds were right and I showed up, some guy had parked his car right in the loading bay where I wanted to shoot. It took some contorting to get a half decent angle but I'm not totally unhappy with this one.
Brutalism is a style of architecture, popular from late 1950s to the early 1970s, which emphasized "heavy, monumental, stark concrete forms and raw surfaces" - Dictionary of Architecture and Construction
Feel free to look at the rest of the images in my small (but growing) Brutalist Toronto set.
This is the Ballston-MU Metrorail Station in Arlington, VA on the Orange and Silver Lines.
This station opened on December 1st, 1979 and features heavy Brutalist architecture that the DC Metro is famous for.
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lomography film 400
© Stefano Majno
The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education is the home of the teacher's college, as well as graduate programs in Education, at the University of Toronto. When I did my B.Ed. we were at FEUT (Faculty of Education, University of Toronto), just down the road, so I have never spent much time in this building.
This image is part of my Brutalist Toronto project. Brutalism is a style of architecture, popular from late 1950s to the early 1970s, which emphasized "heavy, monumental, stark concrete forms and raw surfaces" - Dictionary of Architecture and Construction
The final remnants of John Madin's Natwest Tower on Colmore Row, before 103 Colmore Row began to take shape, Birmingham city centre, July 2016
Image shot during a portrait-themed instawalk across Amsterdam: fellow grammer Peter showing his photographic strength amidst the brutal architecture of the Europarking facility.
Lens: Panasonic H-HS12035 12-35mm F2.8.
Using up some old film in an old 5x4 pinhole camera, still unsure as to wether it's worth it, but I like this one...
The University of East Anglia's architecturally remarkable grade II-listed Ziggurats, Norfolk and Suffolk Terrace, designed by Denys Lasdun in the early 1960s. Internally updated, they provide on campus student accommodation.
www.uea.ac.uk/stud/undergraduate/accommodation/options/st...
Lasdun first proposed this style of accommodation for Cambridge. He intended that a student should be able to get from bed to a class in five minutes.
"The rear of the blocks is concealed below the walkways, with car parking and bicycle racks. To the front, the stepped section made possible rooms that have a high part facing the countryside and a low part to the rear, making the stairs slightly less steep, with only 12 steps between each floor, but the inner parts of the rooms consequently very low."
Elain Harwood, 4 January 2010, in bdonline www.bdonline.co.uk/revisiting-denys-lasdun%E2%80%99s-uea/...
Grade II listed: historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1390647
The cover for the Streets' album Computers and Blues, released in February 2011, features a Ziggurat. news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/arts_an...
As featured: www.sosbrutalism.org/cms/15888753
University of California, Irvine
Architect: AC Martin Partners with William Pereira (1972)
Location: Irvine, CA
Pentax Spotmatic
Helios 44-2 58mm f/2
Kodak Portra 400
Eastern City Gate (Rudo building), Belgrade, Serbia. Complex of 3 skyscrapers located near the entrance to the city, built in "brutalist" style. Each tower is 85m tall, with 28 floors. Around 1400 people live in the 3 buildings.
This is the Ballston-MU Metrorail Station in Arlington, VA on the Orange and Silver Lines.
This station opened on December 1st, 1979 and features heavy Brutalist architecture that the DC Metro is famous for.
Under a brilliantly clear blue sky on a crisp day, the Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre looms large in Edinburgh’s George Square, its massive concrete upper block cantilevered dramatically over the entrance like a modernist spaceship ready for takeoff. The building’s brutalist lines—raw, textured concrete panels and expansive glass windows reflecting the winter-bare trees—dominate the scene, with wide stone steps cascading down to a cobbled plaza where a few bundled-up pedestrians stroll casually, adding a touch of everyday life to this academic fortress. To the left, a warmer yellow-toned building peeks in, contrasting the grey behemoth, while scaffolding on the right hints at ongoing campus tweaks. It’s a snapshot of university hustle frozen in time, where brutal architecture meets serene Georgian surroundings.
Background and Historical/Architectural Info:
The Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre, originally known as the George Square Theatre, is a standout example of mid-20th-century modernist architecture at the University of Edinburgh. Designed by the renowned Scottish architect Sir Robert Matthew of the firm Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall (RMJM), construction was completed in 1970 as part of a controversial redevelopment of George Square in the 1960s and 1970s. This period saw the demolition of many historic Georgian townhouses to make way for bold, functional university buildings, sparking debates about preserving Edinburgh’s heritage versus embracing contemporary design.
The theatre’s Brutalist influences are evident in its raw concrete construction (béton brut style), with a striking overhanging upper auditorium block supported by massive pilotis (concrete pillars), creating a sense of floating mass over the smaller ground-level entrance foyer and basement. This design not only maximizes space in the densely packed urban campus but also echoes the era’s emphasis on exposed materials and geometric forms, inspired by architects like Le Corbusier.
The venue seats 481 people in a raked auditorium, making it the university’s largest lecture hall, and has hosted everything from academic lectures to fringe festival performances during Edinburgh’s famous summer events.
Historically, the building was renamed in 2018 (though some sources note the change taking full effect in 2019 for festival branding) to honor Gordon Aikman, a University of Edinburgh alumnus and inspirational campaigner. Aikman, a business graduate born in 1985, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND, also known as ALS) in 2014 at just 29 years old. He launched the “Gordon’s Fightback” campaign, raising over £500,000 for MND research, lobbying the Scottish government for improved patient care (including doubling the number of specialist nurses), and even influencing laws like the right to free voice-banking for those losing speech due to the disease. His efforts earned him a British Empire Medal and widespread admiration before his passing in 2017 at age 31. The renaming was a fitting tribute, turning the theatre into a lasting memorial for his legacy of advocacy and resilience.
Today, it remains a key venue for university life, festivals, and even student protests—like the 2022 occupation by climate activists—blending its architectural boldness with ongoing cultural significance in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
Architect: Patrick Hodgkinson (1930-2016), 1972, Grade II listed. Apartments, retail, cinema and basement car-park, with central plaza. London Borough of Camden.
Brutalism brutalised - 3
The laborious demolition of the built-like-a-brick-sh*thouse Central (aka Madin) Library in Birmingham.
Rosenblum Coe 1974 Charleston SC / Rollei 35 fujicolor 200 #rollei #rollei35 #filmisnotdead #brutalism #architecture #charleston #southcarolina #film #35mmfilm #35mm #athenian #marathoner #filmpougas #rosenblum #analog #analogue #filmsnotdead #shoofilm #fujicolor #fuji #fuji200 #fujifilm #brutalism