Versions of brutalism

Abstract

During the post-war period in the 1950s, brutalist architecture originated in Great-Britain as a reaction to previous architectural movements. It derived from an architectural style of building with exposed concrete called ‘béton brut’. It later became more popular when a new generation of modernist architects started using this exposed concrete in their designs. Brutalist architecture expressed itself using distinctive materials such as excessively exposed concrete and it has generic properties which can be clearly identified too. Though, architects tended to incorporate own unique features into their designs. Brutalism was a movement that thrived up until the 1970s, inspiring many architects. Among which the architects Marcel Lajos Breuer with his St. John’s Abbey in 1961, and Jo van den Broek and Jaap Bakema with their University Auditorium in 1966.
The research is intended to detect which brutalist design characteristics have a relevance for contemporary building culture. This is done by investigating and comparing design characteristics of the two brutalist buildings; the University Aula and the Saint John’s Abbey. Both buildings have been selected for this research because of their clear referencing to brutalist architecture. The comparison of these buildings is made because the function of both buildings demand space for large groups of visitors.
An objective architectural analysis of design characteristics is executed with drawings retrieved from the Marcel Breuer Digital Archive (n.d.), Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam and the TU Delft Academic Heritage archive. This analysis will be held on both brutalist buildings to discover which parts of each design specifically are more valuable and which parts are less well developed. Subsequently, in case of overlapping proper design characteristics, statements can be made regarding which architectural or compositional decisions that have been made are tied to a particular effect on the sensory and spatial experience. These statements made in the comparison will lead to a grounded conclusion on characteristics of brutalist architecture that are potentially instructive for contemporary building culture.