Interior Movie Set from Torch-Cut Sculpture
American Hustle by Willem DeGroot
A RESURGENCE OF INTEREST
IN BRUTALIST SCULPTURE
Submitted by Lorena O. Allen, M.Ed.
for future Brutalist projects across
Europe and the United States.
The Brutalist Movement of
Architecture had its critics
which may have been due to the
cold and soulless nature of the
architecture, often associated
with totalitarianism. In England,
Charles, Prince of Wales, referred
to the structures as piles of
concrete whose facades project a
stark, menacing bunker sensibility.
Tom Wolfe’s "From Bauhaus to
Our House", became a symbol
of everything wrong with the
Brutalist movement, including
the raw concrete of the buildings,
making the perfect surface for
graffiti artists, whose vandalism
contributed to the decline of these
structures.
Within the last five years, a
resurgence of appreciation for
the Brutalist style of Architecture
has occurred and a number of the
iconic Brutalist structures have
been granted historical status.
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Origins of the Brutalist
movement had its roots in an
urban culture in Europe after
WWII, which was still in the wake of
post war angst. A need developed
for inexpensive construction
that projected strength and
impermeability. Swiss-French
Architect Le Corbusier’s love
of concrete epitomized the
Modernist architecture of mid
20th Century, defined by tiered
levels of exposed concrete slabs
and devoid of decorative elements.
Beton Brut or Raw Concrete was a
French term used by Le Corbusier
to describe the raw materials,
later synthesized into the term
Brutalism. Le Corbusier’s first
project of Brutalist architecture
was Unité d’Habitation in
Marseilles, completed in 1952,
constructed with reinforced
concrete which laid the framework