New Brutalism

In this paper we want to develop a third perspective, one that neither understands concrete as the newest en vogue material, nor rejects it and the Brutalist buildings made from it solely on the grounds of an unpleasant first impression. The sensual awkwardness of Brutalist buildings and the rejection of them is the starting point for our alternative reading of Brutalist architecture. This reading understands concrete buildings as reminders that there is something fundamentally wrong with society. It takes New Brutalism as the architectural answer to the catastrophes of the 20th century. Following Hegel one has to say " philosophy must beware of wishing to be edifying, " a statement that is all the more true for (post-Shoah) architecture. In this paper we illustrate our arguments through description and analysis of the former headquarters of the German Federal Railway. We focus on two specific elements of Brutalist architecture which we call structural expressionism and irreconcilability: the transparency of materials and structures on the one hand, and a specific relation to society on the other, following and adding to Reyner Banham's distinction of aesthetical and ethical aspects in the discussion of Brutalism.

Eine gute Primarschule zeichnet sich vor allem dadurch aus, dass sie den Schülern vielfältige Aussenräume bietet und sie mit den Mitteln der Architektur dazu auffordert, sich diese anzueignen – im digital dominierten Zeitalter mehr denn je. Überzeugend gelingt dies der Primarschule Schauenberg. Doch es gibt viele weitere Gründe, warum sie einer der besten Neubauten der Schweiz ist.

The interior architecture of five selected NSW Brutalist civic-scale buildings from 1963-1978 is addressed through an analysis of interior planning, internal scale, lighting and materiality to identify and isolate the sensual elements in interior architecture the scholar Reyner Banham interprets as Brutalism’s “emotive” imagery. Working with the definitions established by Banham’s Brutalist essays and his interpretations of the Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson practice, the early definitions of Brutalism are used to differentiate between the Smithson-associated Brutalist variant of interior architecture and the interior work found in the five NSW Brutalist case studies. The interior architecture of the five selected NSW Brutalist civic buildings significantly expanded the “emotive imagery” Reyner Banham identified as characteristic of the first wave of Brutalist buildings initiated by the Smithsons’ early practice. These NSW case studies examples illustrate attempts to “bridge” through inventive interior architecture an identified gap “between the traditional ideal of beauty and the Brutalist image” raised by Anthony Vidier. These interiors demonstrate the evocation of sensual responses was a first order concern for the designers. Designing emotive “human associations” of rhythmic procession, light, texture, acoustics and interior ambience in this Brutalist interior architecture signals the architects’ desire to directly engage with the intimate “sense memories” of their audiences. March 2015.

Paolozzi’s sculptures from the late 1950s present a process that pulses between detail and whole. On the level of declared content we are confronted with lumbering figures that look like fossilized versions of science fiction and horror film monsters. Looking across his drawings, prints and writings from the 1950s one can see the insistence on contemporary man’s involvement with machine life. There is a sympathetic synergy here between the machinic and the creaturely – between the piston and the heart, the circuit-board and the nervous system – that delivers a form of equivalence. The result of this equivalence, though, is critically uneasy; the sculptural figures vacillate between emphasizing the machinic in the human and the human in the machine, producing, simultaneously, a desensitized, mechanical body and a living machine.

Being one of the most controversial buildings of its decade, the Robin Hood Gardens complex, by Alison and Peter Smithson, could be considered one of the main instances for the British postmodern architecture. A structure that intended to explore new ways of living, yet was shadowed from the beginning by the vandalism and public insecurity that crawled over the area.

Then, how was developed this path that leads to its demolition?

From this perspective, the objective is to chain our speech through an analytical and chronological process: starting from the scale of the City towards the scale of the Housing unit, simultaneously moving throughout the time. Thus, doing the recap of its history.

Research paper
Authors: Eleni Liakoura, Daniel Lozano
Supervisor: Prof. Filippo De Pieri

01PQHPQ - History of Architecture
MSc Architecture Construction City
Politecnico di Torino, IT.  A.Y. 2019-2020

Brutalism is an architectural style and an ethical conundrum of practicing architecture, known for its notorious past. The word ‘Brutal’ has its connotations with cruelty, inhumanity, aggression and savageness; however Brutalism refers to a Post WWII architectural style predominantly conceived in Europe. A great number of architects from all over the world between the years 1950 to 1980 practiced Brutalism although the word used to describe it was New Brutalism.

Exposed Concrete buildings lies in the heart of brutalist architecture and which is used with its raw nature unpretentious honesty and ethic rather than aesthetic. These Heroic structures are often critiqued as alienating, visually heavy structures, dominative and harsh. But it is the crudeness of the material and visual form used by the architect which gives it these ethical qualities. As Brutalism progressed from European architects to other nations, there were new qualities and principles added or neglected. This variation of principles and manner of expression is result of didactic fervor of early Brutalist architects and result of experimentation of newer Brutalist architects.

Upon examination of Brutalist Modern architecture around India it was observed that this type of architecture was mostly limited to 3 cities: Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, whereas Bangalore, Mehsana and Kanpur have singular buildings. Most buildings by various architects are present in Delhi which is it has predominantly been taken as centre of study however this language is not limited to only Delhi Modernist architecture.

This study examines the role of Concrete Brutalism and its influence in developing an expressive language of Architecture in particularly Early Modernist period of Architecture in India.

Taking Corbusier’s premise, “Mass and Surface are the elements by which architecture manifests itself” as basis of analyzing. It is also an attempt to codify a critical meaning of Brutalism and its relation to concrete through a visual study into Brutalist buildings around the world.

One of my first pieces on the collaborations between the artists and architects Nigel Henderson, Eduardo Paolozzi and Alison and Peter Smithson in the context of the history of the Independent Group, the New Brutalism and Pop art. Published in the journal Oase no 59, 2002 (oasejournal.nl). It formed the basis for my work on the exhibition and book project 'Alison and Peter Smithson. From the House of the Future to a House of Today' in 2004 (together with Max Risselada).

Emerging from a feeling of trauma, protest and a spirit of optimism, brutalism melds two partly contradicting approaches: The theoretical approaches of a small group, whose architectural expression was initially found in the fundamental disclosure of material and construction; and the international manifestation, which despite its wide variety always creates massive and sculptural forms and communicates through rough material. At the beginning praised as progressive experiments, the brutalist structures quickly fell into disfavor. Due to a lack of maintenance and repair, the brutalist buildings continued entering a downward spiral. Finally, after more than 50 years of existence, their future is revealed today as a multi-dimensional challenge.

The case studies, three brutalist town halls in Germany with different conservation statuses and levels of renovation, confirm many arguments from literature and reporting that argue against the preservation of brutalist structures. In addition to the rejection from the population, many brutalist buildings show considerable structural deficiencies and the spatial programs and equipment features are particularly special and do not match today’s demands. In contrast, many brutalist buildings are an important part of the respective city’s history, reflect the sanguine zeitgeist of the 60s and 70s and pass on democratic and social values. The buildings display technical developments of that particular time and embody special architectural and artistic characteristics.

Nevertheless, in the debate about the future of those buildings, these arguments hardly seem to outweigh the shortcomings and rejection. Furthermore, the negative stigma is particularly persistent. Nevertheless, more and more approaches are showing how brutalist architecture can be communicated and how clichés can be resolved. In order to adapt the buildings to today’s requirements and still preserve and appreciate their brutalist character, the buildings must be developed in a courageous and creative, yet at the same time carefully way which respects their special characteristics and intentions.

There is still a lack of practice experience on how to rehabilitate and preserve the brutalist features. Further, there are only a few examples of how brutalist buildings have been transformed for future tasks by structural add-ons, partly removals or by re-using them.

Modernist Cultures 12.3 (2017): 331–344. This essay reconsiders Reyner Banham's classic study of early twentieth-century architecture and design, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, originally published in 1960. Banham surveyed the architecture, design, and visual arts of the 'first machine age', characterized by industrial production and motorized transportation, from a self-consciously thematized perspective within the 'second machine age', populated by expendable consumer technologies and images. This revisionist perspective enabled Banham to challenge long-standing myths propagated by the dominant figures of the modern movement. In his polemical emphasis on the contingency and plurality of that which had empirically transpired in first machine age, Banham rejected the reduction of the messy history of the modern movement to the victory of a putative 'international style'. Banham reasserted the intimate connection of architectural modernism with the avant-garde artistic movements of the 1910s and 20s, emphasizing particularly the most radical ones such as expressionism, futurism, and dadaism.

"La Respuesta Brutalista al Movimiento Moderno". En: Apropiaciones del Movimiento Moderno / Apropiações do Movimento Moderno. Encontros do CEAA, nº 7. CEAA, Porto, 2012, pp. 137-156. ISBN: 978-972-8784-41-6.

Abstract:
A lo largo de los escritos de los Smithson se puede apreciar la gran admiración que profesaban a Le Corbusier y Mies van der Rohe. Pero a la vez, su actitud vital crítica y el contexto de posguerra les llevaron a posicionarse en contra del funcionalismo y a intervenir activamente en la construcción de una nueva cultura arquitectónica y urbana.
Los Smithson sostenían que la auténtica solución urbana residía en la asociación, por lo que bajo el título de “Reidentificación urbana” plantearon interconexiones funcionales entre cuatro escalas de habitación (vivienda, calle, distrito y ciudad), frente a las cuatro zonas de uso único (vivienda, transporte, industria y recreo).
Con la intención de superar los conceptos tradicionales de ciudad, que establecían anillos concéntricos con un patrón radial desde el nudo central histórico, y a la vez revisar gran parte de los principios del urbanismo racionalista, defendieron cinco conceptos urbanos que fueron presentados, en 1956, en el CIAM X de Dubrovnik: modelos de asociación, identidad, modelo de crecimiento, movilidad y cluster. Este último concepto adquiriría especial protagonismo entre sus teorías. Pero se trataba una idea general que convenía concretar, por lo que confeccionaron y sometieron a debate diferentes modelos de agrupación de viviendas acompañados de esquemas y ejemplos; algunos, irónicamente, con una evidente huella corbuseriana.
La oposición de los jóvenes arquitectos a las funciones defendidas por la Carta de Atenas significó el fin de los Congresos Internacionales de Arquitectura Moderna y el nacimiento del Team X. Un fotógrafo y una socióloga, Nigel y Judith Henderson, a través de los Smithson, tuvieron un papel protagonista, aunque anónimo, en ese proceso de cambio. Su obra expresa bien los valores que el nuevo equipo de arquitectos pretende recoger: la invención, la coreografía urbana, la flexibilidad territorial, y una sociabilidad improvisada.

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), the Issam Fares Institute (IFI) is the American University of Beirut's most controversial building. It drew both praise and criticism due to its contrast with the traditional aesthetics of the neighboring Daniel Bliss Hall, Fisk Hall and Nicely Hall.

Utopías Domésticas. La Casa del Futuro de Alison y Peter Smithson. Fundación Caja de Arquitectos. Barcelona, 2013.
ISBN: 978-84-940343-1-2


Arquitectura, Paisaje, Arte, Diseño y Cine se entrelazan en este libro que va de lo particular a lo universal, provocando una actitud reflexiva sobre el concepto de Casa del Futuro en la arquitectura contemporánea.

Los primeros capítulos van desentrañando paulatinamente el pensamiento de juventud de Alison y Peter Smithson, a través de sus primeras obras perecederas y soñadoras. Su Casa del Futuro, pieza central de la investigación, permite ser estudiada a partir de distintos puntos de vista: desde lo que los autores pretendían, lo que mostraron en la exposición, y lo que la vivienda puede sugerir. De carácter efímero y vocación utópica, esta obra muestra el rostro más optimista y alegre de sus autores, a la vez que abre vías para nuevas utopías domésticas. A pesar de su corta vida, la vivienda fue planteada por los Smithson como un proyecto más amplio con el que analizar diferentes aspectos del habitar. En el resultado concurren poéticamente sueños de la casa pasados, presentes y futuros, que mantienen siempre al habitante en el centro de la utopía; sus anhelos, recuerdos y necesidades.

A través de la Casa del Futuro de los Smithson, el libro propone un sugerente viaje que culmina con un carrusel de utopías, algunas próximas a la ciencia ficción, que contribuyen a esclarecer las intenciones del singular proyecto de la pareja británica. El análisis de estas optimistas propuestas nos permite a la vez seguir soñando con un futuro posible, aunque todavía lejano.

Contemporary archaeology recognises the modern landscape as a material resource. This resource has the ability to challenge assumptions regarding the 20th and 21st centuries based in historiography and memory. In this way it engages with a chronology of historical and prehistoric archaeologies, revealing a continuum which extends into the present day. The 20th century is characterised by its superfluity in the contemporary landscape. The utility of contemporary archaeology lies in its ability to articulate detail from this morass of data. The recent past has the potential to illustrate the complex relationship materiality shares with social constructs of verbal meaning and social action. The architecture of The New Brutalism came to dominate architecture in Britain and Australia for a brief period of time in the late-20th century. As such it is well represented today. Its formal register is one of the most recognisable in its use of raw untreated concrete and lack of ornament, and for this reason it is also one of the most controversial. This thesis aims to address Brutalism as a diagnostic formal type in the modern built landscape. Through the application of material non-correspondence theory, Brutalism is shown to have archaeological validity. The principles of dissonance and inertia and highlighted in the Brutalist case study, and illustrate the direct utility of archaeology in shallow temporal contexts.

I will discuss this question: "Does the architecture provide narrative or simulation, and is it instrumental to the game or could the aesthetic have been some other architectural form?"
I will give a brief introduction of popular architecture movement and explain my choice for Brutalism as the main case study. Then explaining the importance of architecture in video games and how an architectural movement can fit a game better than another. Affectionately, being fascinated by puzzle games, I find really appealing, interesting and intriguing to progress through an abstract world which gives the player the space for their own imagination to build around this world. I will observe and argue that the rough minimalist art style, along with everything that is abstract in most games, has Brutalism as a main architecture movement. Thereby letting the player build a part of their own narrative and let them experience various feelings through discovery. Indeed, With Brutalism being monumental and imposing, it often gives the players sensations rarely experienced in other games.

While the topics of Brutalism, world building and dystopias have been researched independently, they have yet to be analysed merged in the form of a video game. In 2019 Remedy Entertainment published their newest game, Control. The dystopian narrative and strong emphasis on architectural world building arguably crowns this game the culmination of the aforementioned themes. Befittingly, Control serves as the main subject matter of this research, where the main question 'How does Control use Brutalism to build a dystopian virtual world?' Is answered through an inductive methodological approach of qualitative directed content analysis strongly guided by existing theory, to examine a multilateral data sample comprised of game reviews, gameplay footage and media interviews with Control's developers. Three general themes were identified as all-encompassing overarching themes relevant to the research question; world building & architecture, science fiction & dystopias and mechanics & technology. By way of thorough analysis of the findings it was uncovered that to build a dystopian virtual world, Control makes use of a combination of firstly, Brutalist architecture for its aesthetic and narrative qualities to enhance storytelling and immersivity. Secondly, dystopian science fiction elements visualised through a mixture of observable and narrative paranormal events, implicit references to dystopian pop culture and dehumanising architecture. And thirdly, in ways augmenting aforementioned aspects, an incorporation of game mechanics such as a forced third person view, complicated interactive map design and realism-enhancing ray tracing technology. Concludingly, in terms of theoretical implications, this study's findings simultaneously subscribe to and contest existing theories on the topics. They demonstrate studied concepts being employed in unison in the Brutalist construction of the Dystopian world of Control, however also highlight a lack of focus on the role gameplay mechanics play within the context of architectural world building. Finally, limitations relating to the qualitative approach of this research are discussed and possible future research suggestions are provided. Topics of interest include the resurgence of Brutalism's popularity in relation to modern media such as photo sharing platform Instagram, players' awareness and interpretation of architecture in games, and lastly, an exploration of possible demand for a novel form of video game where the virtual space itself serves as the main experience.

Is the Salk Institute an exemplar of the ethical New Brutalism? Pulling on archival information regarding CIAM, the Smithsons and general social housing debate, did Louis I. Kahn create the perfect grid of City, District, Street and House in the complete model for La Jolla, San Diego?

Massive, raw concrete structures - the likes of the Telecommunications Building (1972/1981) by Janko Konstantinov; the campus of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University (1974) by Marko Mušič; the National Hydraulic Institute (1972) by Krsto Todorovski; and the Bank Complex (1970) by R. Lalovik and O. Papeš - have led to the production of an enduring monumental presence and helped inspire Skopje’s title as the ‘brutalist capital of the world.’ These works followed Kenzo Tange’s introduction of Japanese Metabolism to Skopje through his role in the 1965 United Nations sponsored reconstruction competition. The unique position of a Non-Aligned Yugoslavia staged and facilitated architectural and professional exchange across the Cold War. Each trajectory and manifestation illustrates the complex picture of international architectural exchange and local production. Skopje and its numerous brutalist edifices is an elucidative story because it represents a meeting point between Brutalism, Metabolism and its American parallel.

This paper will look in particular at the Skopje Archive Building (1966) and the “Goçe Delčev” Student Dormitory (1969), two buildings by the architect Georgi Konstantinovski, realised on his return from a Masters programme at Yale University and employment within I.M. Pei’s New York office. Their architecture illustrates the simultaneous preoccupations of leading architects at the time in regaining a conceptual ground made explicit through a complete and apprehensible image.  From this particular position the paper will explore the question of ethics and aesthetics central to Banham’s outline of the New Brutalism.

This essay examines the ways in which the built environment – specifically concrete architecture – affects our relationship with the world. Case studies for this research consist of two buildings and one sculpture: Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille (1947-52) and Notre Dame du Haut (1955), and Rachel Whiteread’s House (1993). On the other hand, culturally represented acts of violence emerged from post-war Brutalist buildings and can be seen in Alison and Peter Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens (1966-72) and Stanley Kubrick’s movie A Clockwork Orange (1971).

This introduction to the early 1960s formation of Britain's celebrated avant-garde architecture group, Archigram, was written for The Twentieth Century Society's 2002 book "The Sixties," edited by Elain Harwood and Alan Powers. It argues that the group was a reaction to British "brutalist" architecture, with which Archigram members were both enamored and discontented, pushing brutalism to new extremes at the London County Council's South Bank Arts Centre and in florid, visionary competition entries.

La descripción del proceso de participación de los usuarios del villaggio Matteotti se recorre a través de los diferentes momentos y varios modos en los cuales se realiza: cuestionarios, entrevistas, debates, publicaciones, exposiciones, visitas guiadas. La narración de los even-tos, que se siguen por seis años desde el establecimiento del estudio urbanístico hasta la entrega de los departamentos, busca aclarar el efectivo poder de decisión de los usuarios y cómo sus necesidades influyen sobre el edificio finalmente construido. Esta historia no puede prescindir de los espacios del complejo precedente, de los clientes, de los habitantes, de los encargados, de los programas de financiamiento para los trabajadores, de las empresas del Estado involucradas en la construcción o las contribuciones del sociólogo, del curador y del diseñador gráfico de las exposiciones, así como de las revistas de la empresa o el apoyo de los operadores.

This project aims to address the role played by social action and verbal meaning in the formation of the archaeological record. The material and the social shared a layered, nondeterministic relationship characterised by networks of verbal meaning and social action. This process is universal and temporally nondeterministic. Though temporal distance will impact upon the survival of an archaeological resource, it is not a necessary precondition of archaeology. The argument is tested against three sites of recent origin belonging to the Brutalist architectural style in Britain and Australia; a common post-war architectural element in the urban landscape of both countries. Via separate articulation of the social and the material, episodes of socio-material dissonance are identified. These are interpreted via Fletcher’s theory of material non-correspondence in an effort to highlight the archaeological significance of the contemporary cultural resource.

Keywords
Brutalism; Modernism; architecture; non-correspondence; dissonance

Pretendo nesta dissertação descrever os acontecimentos que estiveram na origem do termo Brutalismo, a partir da discussão que foi suscitada pelos arquitectos e críticos que o desenvolveram como sendo uma hipótese de superação do Movimento Moderno.

Durante os anos 1950, enquanto o Reino Unido recuperava o seu poder económico e social, os arquitectos Alison e Peter Smithson preconizavam uma vontade de mudança e, no fulgor do seu percurso inicial, decidem usar a escrita como método para então propor uma nova maneira de olhar para a arquitectura. No mesmo período, o crítico e historiador Reyner Banham associa-se a esta demanda ao expandir as ideias estes arquitectos para o campo da crítica, possibilitando uma leitura mais abrangente com a junção da arquitectura e da arte.

Sucederam-se então várias discussões em volta do Brutalismo, tendo sempre como protagonistas principais os arquitectos e o crítico citados. Depois deste período denso que durará até ao início dos anos 1970, estes voltaram-se para outras investigações dentro do seu campo de trabalho, ao mesmo tempo que o ímpeto inicial do Brutalismo que haviam incutido em Inglaterra era apropriado por diferentes facções a nível global, distanciando-se das premissas estabelecidas.


O objecto de investigação encontra actualmente um interesse renovado por parte de uma nova geração de arquitectos, críticos e historiadores. O conjunto de projectos, edifícios e textos ligados ao Brutalismo, que estabeleceram contornos polémicos no passado, podem ser analisados de outra forma no presente graças a uma distância temporal que o permite.

A dissertação encontra-se dividida em três capítulos, sendo iniciada por uma breve contextualização do objecto da investigação, seguindo-se uma descrição dos textos principais que o potenciaram, assim como os acontecimentos dentro da arquitectura e da arte que se seguiram. No segundo capítulo, são analisadas as reacções subsequentes dos arquitectos e críticos que entram na discussão em volta do Brutalismo britânico, passando depois pelos projectos de Alison e Peter Smithson e pela obra de Reyner Banham. No terceiro e último capítulo, é abordado o ressurgimento do Brutalismo que acontece a partir de  retrospectivas do período analisado nos primeiros dois capítulos e também sob a forma de uma herança declarada por arquitectos britânicos contemporâneos em volta do trabalho de Alison e Peter Smithson.

Beside the successful prefabricated Hertfordshire schools in Great Britain during the mid-twentieth century, the archi-tects that were associated with the New Brutalism were reclaiming the role of architecture as a mediator in the relationship of the child within the environment and the community in which he lives. Their understanding of architecture as a new urban landscape built, in which everyday living unfolds, led them to a design approach that focuses fundamentally on the generation of architectural form derived from the specific functional, playful and mental necessities of those who use it. Its particular way of materialising and its specific manner of implementation in a given location are considered as imperative actions, which must arise ad hoc in every case, and will determine the running of educational complexes as real integrated living spaces.

Campus Confessions asks how ideas about education meet theories of architectural practice in he establishment of the Central Institute of Technology on its Heretaunga (NZ) site. New ideas about technical training in New Zealand, a local engagement with the New Brutalism, and an architect known for his humour and irreverence all compound to form this interesting chapter in New Zealand's modern architectural history.

Nieves Fernández Villalobos: "Un ardiente homenaje visual al mundo escrito. Fahrenheit 451 (1966) de François Truffaut" en en González Cubero, Josefina; Pérez Barreiro, Sara; Villalobos Alonso, Daniel (eds.): Interiores Domésticos y Urbanos. Fotograma 007.Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico. Valladolid, 2016. pp.51-55
ISBN: 978-84-617-5244-7

Resumen: Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial surgieron las posvanguardias arquitectónicas; es decir, aquellas corrientes que reaccionan ante la totalidad del discurso de la arquitectura moderna. En 1953 los arquitectos Alison y Peter Smithson y los artistas Nigel Henderson y Eduardo Paolozzi organizaron la exposición Parallel of Life and Art, una muestra que reunía más de cien imágenes sustraídas de varios medios. Dos años después, valorando la potencia visual de este evento y considerando los primeros proyectos arquitectónicos de los Smithson, el crítico Reyner Banham anunció el nacimiento del neobrutalismo (1955), lo que implicó en la arquitectura, la percepción de una imagen reconocible y memorable: “lo que perturba cuando es mirado, lo que afecta las emociones”. Las posiciones asumidas por los Smithson, Paolozzi y Henderson se basaron en la adopción de la imagen de múltiples significados y, al tiempo, en el manifiesto The New Brutalism de Reyner Banham se explica cuál es el tipo de imagen que configura la arquitectura de los Smithson partiendo de Parallel of Life and Art. Considerando lo anterior, en este artículo se explican los significados que puede tener este movimiento en la teoría arquitectónica, a partir del evento inaugural del neobrutalismo, Parallel of Life and Art, y por medio de un método iconológico, resignificándolo como vanguardia pionera de la posmodernidad en arquitectura.

Abstract: After World War II, post avant-garde also arise reacting to modern architecture discourses. In 1953 the architects Alison and Peter Smithson and the artists Nigel Henderson and Eduardo Paolozzi organized the exhibition Parallel of life and art, a sample that gathered more than one hundred images subtracted from popular media. Valuing this event and considering the Smithsons’ first architectural projects, critic Reyner Banham announced the birth of New brutalism (1955), which would imply in architecture the perception of a recognizable and memorable image: “that which disturbs when looked upon, which affects emotions”. The positions assumed by the Smithsons, Paolozzi and Henderson are based on the adoption of images with multiple meanings and, at the same time, Banham’s new brutalism manifesto explains the type of image that their architecture implies. Starting with the inaugural event of New brutalism, Parallel of life and art, and through an iconological method, this text explains the meanings that this movement can have on architectural theory, resignifying it as a pioneer vanguard of postmodernism in architecture.

The article examines the impact of the study for Levittown of urban sociologist Herbert Gans on Denise Scott Brown’s thought. It scrutinizes Denise Scott Brown, Robert Venturi, and Steven Izenour’s ‘Remedial Housing for Architects or Learning from Levittown’ conducted in collaboration with their students at Yale University in 1970. Taking as its starting point Scott Brown’s endeavour to redefine functionalism in ‘Architecture as Patterns and Systems: Learning from Planning’, and ‘The Redefinition of Functionalism’, which were included in Architecture as Signs and Systems: For a Mannerist Time (2004), the article sheds light on the fact that the intention to shape a new way of conceiving functionalism was already present in Learning from Las Vegas, where Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour suggested an understanding of Las Vegas as pattern of activities. Particular emphasis is placed on Scott Brown’s understanding of ‘active socioplastics’, and on the impact of advocacy planning and urban sociology on her approach. At the core of the reflections developed in this article is the concept of ‘urban village’ that Gans uses in US in The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans (1972) to shed light on the socio-anthropological aspects of inhabiting urban fabric.

This paper presents two important examples of reinforced concrete construction from the 1970s and 1980s in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. These are large-scale, public buildings and examples of in-situ concrete construction with some precast concrete elements. This paper is the first to argue that the buildings represent significant local accomplishments in concrete construction, a conclusion based on an examination of the structural and architectural use of concrete in each building. The paper draws on unpublished archival documentation and personal onsite investigations as well as the discussions in architectural textbooks and magazines of common building practices at the time. This study also compares the two buildings, which were built at the same time and had similar design and construction requirements. Finally, the paper considers if the use of concrete was approached differently in the two buildings and the ‘concrete’heritage value of each building.

At the end of the Second World War, the Hungarian-Jewish painter Magda Cordell McHale fled to London, where she remained until 1961, when she moved to the United States to pursue a career in futurology with her husband, the artist John McHale (d. 1978). The decade or so she spent in London was the most prolific phase in her artistic career. It saw her involved in the foundation of the Independent Group (1952–55), and exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Hanover Gallery. Although Cordell was widely recognized for her ambivalent portrayals of the female body as mythic archetype and techno-scientific testing ground, she has not received due acknowledgment in the recent literature on postwar Britain and the Independent Group. This article re-evaluates the legacy of her proto-feminist artworks, arguing for Cordell’s important contribution to postwar British art and culture.

Lucy Bradnock, Courtney J. Martin and Rebecca Peabody, eds., Lawrence Alloway: Critic and Curator (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute, 2015), 34 colour and 18 b/w illustrations, 224 pp., ISBN 9781606064429, Paperback $40

Ben Highmore, The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2017), 40 colour and 110 b/w illustrations, 304 pp., ISBN 9780300222746, Hardback $85/£35

*Presentation by M. Moreno Moreno:
https://media.upv.es/player/?id=f8c63d70-79be-11ea-a0af-0d51457d271c

Abstract:
La arquitectura de Jean Renaudie (1925-1981) responde al contexto político-social de la Francia de la segunda mitad del s.XX. Su desarrollo, primero en el Atelier Montrouge y después en solitario, se enmarca en la crítica que la generación de jóvenes arquitectos realizaba de los postulados de la Carta de Atenas. La evaluación, desde el punto de vista social, de aquellos resultados funcionalistas, sugirieron a los nuevos profesionales la modificación de sus configuraciones arquitectónicas y urbanas. Conceptos como identidad, asociación, movilidad y crecimiento, expuestos por el Team X en el X Congreso del CIAM en Dubrovnik (1956), se experimentaban gracias a la expansión hacia las periferias de la ciudad. En esta comunicación analizaremos el papel del hormigón armado en la arquitectura de los complejos de vivienda social de Jean Renaudie, atendiendo principalmente al proyecto Les Étoiles de Givors (1974-1981): un conjunto urbano que recogió experiencias anteriores construidas-Ivry-sur-Seine-y teóricas-ciudades de Gigaro o Vaudreuil-. El objetivo será demostrar que el empleo del hormigón in-situ con un orden estructural geométrico, junto al diseño de piezas prefabricadas para las fachadas no portantes, aportaron en sinergia una anhelada diversidad que avalaba su discurso referido a la lógica de la complejidad. Abstract: The architecture of Jean Renaudie (1925-1981) is a response to the political-social context of France in the second half