Brutal

I'm not a student of architecture, in the broad sense. I like buildings, what with their walls and windows and roofs and stuff, as much as anyone (well, anyone who doesn't know much about architecture); have uninformed opinions about this building or that building; like this; don't like that. 

Buildings I really like tend to be brutal concrete blocks. Or, if it looks like it's from a Thunderbirds set, then I'll probably like it. Prince Charles, famously, slagged-off the public library in my home city of Birmingham. One of his monstrous carbuncles…actually what he really said was that it looked like, "…a place for burning books, [rather] than keeping them" (which is a pretty funny crack). But I like it. I suppose if you spend your days fopping around a grandiose pile you're unlikely to be that excited by concrete. 

I, on the other hand, with my more humble background, disagree with his outspoken, architecto-Royalness. I like it. And I like the rear end of the Ulster Museum (pictured here and here) as well.

 

Comments

[Luke Tonge]

Agreed. Love it. Love anything blocky, massive, ultra-massive, solid or describable using words like behemoth and juggernaut.
Also, if they resemble a Jawa sandcrawler I'm particularly happy...

Here's some you might like:
http://www.archdaily.com/6893/house-in-kohoku-torafu/
http://www.noticiasarquitectura.info/especiales/hemeroscopium.htm
http://www.yatzer.com/1773_primitive_living_in_saijo,_hiroshima
http://flavorwire.com/34914/architecture-battle-of-the-day-norways-nazi-sympathizer-musuem
http://www.archdaily.com/40086/huanacu-warehouse-office-tfps/
http://www.dailytonic.com/high-alpine-buildings-modern-day-witch-houses/
http://www.archdaily.com/42346/kiltro-house-supersudaka/
http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2008/10/m-vironments-m-velopes-m-house-by.html

[Richard]

Great links. Thanks. Casa Hemeroscopium is amazing. Love that pool.

[Adam S]

Kudos to you. I find myself constantly arguing in favour of the South Bank Centre in London. I actually think alot of it is beautiful and just severely misunderstood. It's nice to see someone else standing up for architecture that is all too commonly doused with the brush of 'eyesore'.

[Monotoba]

Love the way it 'blends' in with the older front. Here's my old school, how cool is that... http://www.rsua.org.uk/building_database_specific.aspx?dataid=364683 Then they painted it magnolia.

[Daniel]

Our local brute up here in York: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannygray/galleries/72157622669843929/

[Sjors]

Brutal is just Brutal, this is a nice little building in that style too: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=london&sll=52.429222,-0.966797&sspn=12.649362,19.02832&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=London,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.527987,-0.103877&spn=0.003147,0.004646&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.527984,-0.103894&panoid=3iQ4iZjlvJqAgdD43GDaRQ&cbp=12,199.66,,0,-2.79

[Dave]

I was in Berlin recently and I happened to visit two sites that really grabbed my attention and both we're constructed from concrete, it was the texture that made them so interesting and tactile, one like satin the other like sandpaper.

The Jewish Memorial
http://www.pygment.com/blog/2010/03/23/jewish-holocaust-memorial-1/

A former (above ground) bunker/nite club/banana warehouse now an Art Gallery
http://www.pygment.com/blog/2010/03/27/bunker/

[Johnny]

Really like the post. Brutalism always reminds me of "Get Carter", with Michael Caine throwing Bryan Mosley from the roof of the Luder-designed car park. . .