Reyner Banham The ~ New BrutalismContents Text Proface Inthe beginning wasthe phase 12 Polemicefore Krush Unit Habitation Marcie 2 a Secondary Shoo, Hunsanton a Progress to afemaliam Yale Art Gallery, New Haven 4a Manifesto i nti of Technolgy, Chicago Le Corbusier; Marseilles ( ts Marseilles (France), init Habitation, 1948-54 Ludwig Mies van der R vet) \ van der Rohe; Chicago (inci, USA ‘Aunel Memoria Hall (Wincisinstitte of Technology). 194547 Alison and Peter 5 ster Smithson; Hunstanton (England) Secondary School, 1948-58 Alison and Pe ter Smithson; Coventy Cathedral (England), co mpetition design 1951 ‘Aliso and Pes City of London Housing, ior Smithson, ondon (England), Goldon-Lane competition design 1952 Alison and Pet Sheffield Univer (gland), com Snithson sity Extensions Petition design, 1958 James Stn Seating end Alan Cordingley Sheteld University Extensions (England, elton design 1958, Sir Oven Pharmac lime; Beeston (Nottingham, England), suial Factory (dry processes bloc). 1982 Lous ah Natt Kat and Douglas Ox; rete Conca, Usa, For alo Univesity. 1953 Johannes Rone H an den Broek and Jacob B Baker (allan, van den Brock House. 1988 johannes H van den Pott rk and Jacob & Bakoma: Hterdam (Hollanc) ijnbaan. 1958, 51 Brute, non and othor art 52 ‘Rote on ‘une architocture autre! 33 ‘The end ofan old urban ts MaisoneJaoul, Nuily 62 Fata at Ham Common, London 63 ‘The Brutal style ViadimirBodianshy and ATBAT-Alrique hlgiers, Mass Housing, 1958 onwards Alison and Petar Smithson; Watford (Herierdshire, England}, Sugdon House. 1950 ‘Alison and Poter Smithson: Rural Housing Project for CIAM ~ X. 1955, Wiliam G Howell end John Partridge; Rural Housing Project for CIAM ~ X. 1955 James Stiring; Rural Housing Project Tor IAM — X 1055, Richard Llowelyn-Davies and John Weeks; Rushbrooke (Suffolk, England), Village Housing. 1987 Denys Lasdun and Partners Bethnal Green, London (England), Cluster-block 1957-60, ‘Alison and Peter Smithson Hlustrations to Arica ‘Custer City’. 1957 Alison and Petor Smithson; Serlin-Haupttadt (Germany), competition design, 1858 Le Corbusier; La Sainte-Saume (Gouches du Rhone, France), Pilgrimage Centre (La Cits Permanente), fret project. 1948 Le Corbusier; Cap Mastin (France), Hotel Rog et Rob’ project. 1949 Le Corbusier; Lake Constance (Switzerland), Fueter House projec. 1950, Le Corbusier; Boulogne-sur-Seine (Pars, France), Petite Maison de Weekend. 1885 Le Corbusier; Neuilly (Paris, France), Malaone Jaoul. 1958 dams Stirling and James Gowan; Ham Common (Condon, England), Langham Hause Development 1958107 108 110 m m a2 114 18 18 16 119 20 wa 19 16 15 0 18 7 Hard cases: the Brick Brutal a1 Intute Marehion, Milan a2 Habitats: Halen, Harumi, Shefild 9 Memoirs ofa survivor ° John Vosleker; Arkloy (Hertfordshire, England), Lyttleton House. 1956 Wiliam G Howell, Gillian Howell and Stanley Amis; sad (London, England), Terrace Housing. Lyons Israel and Eli; London (England), ‘Old Vie’ Theatre Workshops, 1958, Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall; Gatwick (England), Airport. 1957 ‘Owen Luder and Pariners: Catford (Condon, England), Eros House. 1968 ‘Sheppard, Robson and Partners ‘Cambridge (England), Churchill College. 1968 Sir Basil Spence and Partners; Brighton (England), University of Sussex, 1963/88 Potor Moro; London (England), Hille Furaiture Shop. sole (England), Hi Denys Lasdun and Parinere; London, Flats in StJamés's Place. 1961 Lendon County Council Architect's Department (Housing Division); Roshamptan (London, Erland), Alton West Housing. 1959 Bresciani, Valdes, Castila and Huidobro Santiago (Chile), Quinta Normal Housing. 1961-68 4Anaré WogensehyRémy-tes-Chévrouses (Franee) Achtects Own House too? ‘itr 5 (Erwin Fritz, Samuel Gober, Rolf Hesterberg, Hans Hostetler, Niklaus Morgenthator, Areca Rothvist (Switzerland), Aldor Hous 1958 Ali (EwinFri, Samo! Gerber, Rol Hestrbor, Hane Hostetler Niaus Worgoniatar Aone ee; Thun (miteonand, Paco Le Corbusier; St Di6 (France), Factory. 1980 Walter Férderer, Rolf Otte, Hane Zwimpfers Aeseh (Switzerland), School 1982 a 18 0 we we 16 4a 180 153 188 108 a 176 vw 102 189 108 186 Photographers ° Sverre Fehn and Geir Grang; Mathaugen Cillehammer, Norway), Museum Extension. 1958 Luigi Figini and Gino Polini; Milan (aly), Church ofthe Madonna dei Poveri 1858 Johannes H van den Broek and Jacob B Bakema; ‘Nagele (Holland), Reformed Church, 1960, Sigurd Lawarent; Stockholm (Sweden), ‘Markuskyrka, 1900 (Oswald Mathias Ungers; Cologne (Germany), ‘Architect's Own House. 1959 CColin St John Wilson and Alex Hardy; ‘Cambridge (England), Extensions to School of Architocture 1989 Sir Leslie Martin and Colin St John Wilson (with Patrice Hodgkinson); Cambridge (England), Harvey Court Hostel. 1982 ‘Sheppard, Robson and Partners; Cambridge (England), Churchill College, Fallows’ Flats, 1980 Vittoriano Vigand; Milan (Ia), Inttuto Marehiona, 1958, ‘Aldo van Eyeky Amsterdam (Holland), (Orphanage School. 1958-60 aul Rudolph New Haven (Connecticut, USA), Fa beer area Stacents® Housing. 192 {Atelier (Erwin Fite, Semusl Gerber, Rolf Hesterborg, Hans Hostetler, Niklaus Morgenthaler, Alfredo Pini) Berne (Switzerland), Siodlung Halen. 1961 Kiyonor Kikwtake; Totsuka (Yokohama, Japan), TTonogaya Apartments. 1950 thuta, Oki and Miyajima; Omiya (Saitama, Japan), Fu duke Omiya Development, 157 Kunio Mayekawa; Harum (Tokyo, Jaan), Apartment Block, 1858 ‘Shoffeld City Architects Department City Architects dick Lynn, or Smith and Frederick Nicklin, Uesignors; Sheffield (England), Park ill Development. 1961 ‘Alison and Peter Smithson; London (Englane), Economist Clstor. 1068 James Sting and James Gowan; Leicester (England), University Engineering laboratories. 1968“11 Inthe begining was the phrase One ofthe mare ronal aspects ofthe race se tay of acct ethlheinvoton ofthe te “The New Sali shoul aheasy bu abonced Mistral mystery apt of tho fetta t coeur tad ab rece a the ety siwten fas ond ay der conitions which shoud haverenderedteshols Hee vl to anyhsoan who was nanos The maiiaon derves from wo angle cca before thre eited any arctectural moverent fot scr wo tha twas then esinied seer selbea pticuarmovementlowhth fst op ‘rr fa on oad cts thal in th am Tho New Bruton fad ene, sand fr solting so porentous ha the spn tion “its somebody's nickname", woul oe would have seamed The originator ofthe certainly aha Asplund. He terminal in the the Word ‘Sata sees ve beon Hane Asplund, eon of Gunnat {tv his account ofthe invention ofthe ‘Achlestiral Review in IO" eed nk ‘Se8ms no reason to doubt his version: im ‘aly "In January 15 colleagues Ben architects we shared ofce 3 offices with my esteemed rat Edman and Lerma re at the time desi area ina mii area in amily sarcastic way Neo Berens ate Isher for Now Buta), The foe ee ‘joifistionopathe ch Htende wth ome Engh fiends, Brough the word boc tht tha spread ii Bria 1 same as and it was the lator Boon adopt dione eet es a Sothie Brtalst whereas The New Bras aot phrase an etien ney em sina sean ei a OF an alae too udhteclure, Neverhioss, the term ‘Butalist’ undoubtecly wae brought back to England by the three architects named by Asplund, and from thom passed into the omman colloquial vocabulary atthe two main c= tres of architectural diussion in London at that fimo: the Architectural Association (8 professional iu with an attached coe) and the Architect's Department of the London County Council, which was just about fo embark on its period of groatest roductivty. Within this context of professional gos- tip and discussion, however, the word, "Srtalit Was used ina rather spocilied sence (for ple cal stone which wil appear later). Whatever A lund meant by it the Cox-Shankland connection Seem to have used it almost exclusively to meen Modern ArSitecture of the more pure forms then uren, especialy the work of Mie van der Robe The most obstnato protagonist of that type ofa ehitecture atthe time in London were Alsen and Fetor Snithson, designers of the Miesian school at Hunstanton whichis generally taken to be the fist Bata ling The er ait was doodles spplied to their ideas lighty and in passing, but $k fo them fortwo ressvs ty boca the ore prepared to make something serious of ds seconily, because Poter Smithson was known to hit ends during his student dayeas-Brats toma suP- hero. : ee an This tas circumstance seemed so ridiculous that it sPr0ad about the word as fast as the Smitheons! srcitectural reputation: even before Peter Sih dents set 12 Ameria Sghiod Giedio's Su (CBretalsm ecuats Brutus plus Alison", but tho # Wrote C2vTesPendent in ‘Architectural Desig’ who Te fsa eters ckname boon io, would sig tae been The New Fidelity: had missed the Bo, When Fetes Sthion finally commited the pire to prin n December #869 “in fal, had te been blk would have been the ft exponent of oy deena In England..."* the situation had thea developed eo far that no word but Stalls" Ard many core a geshee® what the Smithson® . 3 of thelr generation urgently fat hey must exorat, even they had a yet ne it Even if The New Brutlom 38 ly exist n December 18 tecture to expr rpr08 00h di not rel tale on which made tne , the situa which neds ace, BBeesEar did exist, a situation how it was eee e2amined inorder to understand English conta 3, Swedish phrase dropped into an contort should become sg, Wide echoes, slogan with world- 112 Polemic before Kruschev Greatly influenced both by the social atitudes of Siatinguished refugee-architects like Gropius, and War (an oven an ah itligensa). Many a “tempts to enforce an Anglo-Zhds Bea lae ee ‘con- * ein i Bin (esing " ‘tc, was occasionally digified by the grandiooe vi, tileio) Rochon fan Eon, East our 50 ‘onthe ground. The smaller housing inte Aton East ‘Swedish. eer shher su aE Cit the origins and practice of a planning English plcturseque eo a an panig ios ody evens th highest vlan fo one lomo avon Sh Ci cents gee [icc ease it tea sa cial chaos, a world he prospect of nucte ‘stchitectural standards on the part cttherode Woah ony seen Se ar annihilation, and othabeak wa tecieagh rs ° was much employed by the ‘Architectural Review’) Toomed to bo employed to justly, oven sanctity, wilngness to compromise away every ‘real’ archi= Toctuntl valve, to surrender to all that was most pro- Vinclal and sccond-ate in British social and into [eotual life. Theve were, of course, understandable fistorcal reasons for this ‘sof atitude on the part Of the middle-aged generation. They had been do- fending some version ofthe British way of ile from polnts all ever the globe in World War Il, but the Kualty ofthat way of if was being steadily reduced {eepecially in tho arts) by isolation from those cen- roe, uch as Paris, which had traditionally exercised both a stimulating and a steadying influence on the Bish Intligentsia. si Thug, In England, there hae grown up during the war 1 romantis and fashionably morbid school of land- Scapeltownseape painting, exemplified by the work ff ohn Piper and Graham Sutherland, and the vision of this school was influential in preparing a mood of elegant despair that affectod many branches of Bitsh elture inthe ensuing peace. Thus Piper, who contributed a dustjacket to the classic monument of post-war intellectual sel-pity, Cyril Conoll's The Unauiet Grave’, leo executed both the dustjacket td the illustrations to ‘The Castle's onthe Ground’, Topecimen example of wartime ‘home thoughts from broad a sentimental evocation (qriten in Cairo) ofthe vittues and less damaging vices of Victorian Suburbia, composed by the distinguished erite 3 M Richards leo an editor ofthe‘ArchitecturalReview', like Pevsner. This book in particular was regarded ty the young as a blank betrayal of everything that Modern Architecture was supposed to stand for, and worse act of treachery in that it had been written by the man whose ‘Introduction to Modera Architec tue! had Indeed served to Introduce many of them tothe of architecture, ‘Thote ean be no doubt that these wartime experion= ces had sorvedo contuse the aims and blunt she intelloctual attack of tho men to whom were entrust (Gd such majer enterprises as the design of tho fist ‘eneration of New Towns, or the Festival of Briain | Srta6t. The younger generation, viewing these works, hed the depressing sense that the drve was going cut of Modern Architecture, its pure dogma being dk Tuted by politicians and compromisors who had lost their ineliectual nerve. Young architect, of cours, trore not the only members of their generation to fool sontiments lke this. Thr revolt has been com pared to the rise of the ‘Red-Brick’ novliss® and the ‘Angry Young Men’ in tho British theatre, but ‘while its tuo that many of the Brutalists hail from "Redrick universities and held the kind of sbsolute and uncompromising views that characterise the ‘Angry Young Men, the fact romaine that the first edb orvsiin (leg Bacau ofthe rtesabe (Dd Haw) coal na Wop) bron om Sir gh Caton (Dect of Antec); Landon Erland, The SevantSinePaion signer ir i! Space) soe by some years the fist ‘Angry play, ‘Look Back ‘Ango?, and they flatly rejected the provincial back ‘round of which novelist ike Jahn Wein and Kings- ley Amis made so much Instead, they deliberately sought out non-provincal standards and moasuted themselves against Inter= national figures. Refusing empiricist compromise or Picturesque traditionalism, they set up as thelr stan dards men like Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson (stil in hie Migsian phase), Alvar Aalto or Emesto Rogers. They rejected thoir im= ‘mediate predecessors in Britain, except perhaps Wells Coates, always true to a Parisian aesthetic and Berthold Lubetkin, the distinguished Russian re fugee whose political convictions had never led him to Eompromiso with vernacular standards, much to the embarassment of other Communist architeots in Britain. At early a8 CIAM VIII in 1981, the young had invaded the congrese in order to at atthe fect of ‘grands mattres' whose views they could respect (whatever may heve happened later) ia preference {o listening to their English seniors whom they Were fast coming to despi At the same time they coemed to be satting out to find a historial basi for their architectural convicr tions outside the Eiglish tradition, Here again, Pevs ner was an authority they had to rojoct. Not only di his ‘Pioneers of the Modern Movement place & ¥e"Y high valuation on the English contrib rise of Modem Architecture, but he had also, n 2° ‘essay published in April 1954, made a strong case for the continuing ute of picturaaque mathods ever in architects like Le Corbusier) This article wa consciously intended as a contribution to the public debate on tho Picturesque then in process: it wae writen in roply to radio talkin which Basil Taylor (an aesthetic philosopher then in vogue) had at~ tacked the corrosive influence of picturesque Prae- tice, and Pevener provoked apited reply trom Alan Colqehoun, an important, though largely wt published, contibutor to the architectural ideas oF tho younger generation. What this ganorstion sought wae historical justti calions for ite own attitudes, and it sought them in two main areas of history ~ the traditions of MO= dem Architecture itself andthe far longer traditions ‘of clacsiiam. Inthe fire traction, they laid particu lar emphasis on the formgivere — not only on Le Corbusier and Mies van dor Rohe, but also on such figures as Rietveld (whose Schroder house was de~ ‘scribed by Peter Smithson as “tho only uly cantoni- teal modern building in Europe” — a striking and suggestive turn of phrase) or Hugo Haring, whose farm at Garkau they know only through a tiny ils testion ina olatvely obscure book, Bruno Taul’s Modern Architecture’, of 1990, Their degree of s0- Phisteation ebout tho history of Modorn Architeo- ture was remarkable by world standards atthe time: ln he ioe Ina, bron’ er Gets Perot ‘won i arate Rae say, ‘hole sophistication about classicism was remarkable for its peculiar interests rather than its extent. Most ofthis generation had passed through some form ‘of rundown Besun-Arte tiining (hough Peter Sith f20n onrolled deliberately at tho Royal Acadamy {schools in London, inthe hope of sequting a mare ‘convincing form of classical expertise), all had had ‘heir intrest in claesiciom confirmed by their read ings in Le Corbusier, but all came very rectly under the influence of the brillant revival of Palladian studies in England in tho late Forties; elther directly through Rudolf Withowar and his book'Architoctual Principles In the Age of Humanism or through the thore was direct architectural relevance the ‘of fwontetiveentury “could say (in ‘Architectural Design’?): “It is seldom fiat cance ting th pueton of to boake Seas fonate eh ey of Dr Woe tors hve! nnn he Ago of Hunan ian Ue Gobusere Motor exes book emilee te agiconco ofthe oho snd trough thom bat Rbecomes peso fo othe gine of wry nua i avery mc sive among ar fete athe peer tmey Rone tas ang the dge-ulngtetiquebe- oa eken tele bled realy enough The eeftontrl Raver) anes, The Hathomates Free ea Wile compating Palade and La Sie tnd Mannan and Modern Arete: woe ce aay fr precoder nwt as thon Sn"Mtatccualy taonble petod of at j halos) sotemore tn the aneigaration of ancient cee sore of anaes eae tere ceases one real snd ie ercetre weet tte cousars fr book Vere (reeitecre te nage of = conincng and cee eetecure tha tir ler had lost and Sea cr cut pongo td In pt ofthe eee erer' sj Fomalon freed at thom by thei cee ee ccmed to rovel eth abl ~ 2 small sens Gotta Youcker wns pub nan exam fie ha Now foment th approve an me tard of erences to Withoner, Pali end So Meaney tes aereraion of rect ot p> osc a apse iy ttre moment when te ntnooe accept tho tle Bat tured con Seow fo egret fomegvers of thor tine for inopialon= trek Lio Wag, bl shove lo Me van dor Rohe and Soba Se casa si en to ur 62:1 Unité dHabittion, Marsees Behind all aspects ofthe Naw Brutaliam, in Britain and sleewhore, lies one undleputed architectural fact: the concteto-ork of Le Corbusier “Unité Habitation at Marsailles. And ifthere is one single falsm admissible in mact of the world's wos languages itis that Le Corbusier himself described that concrete-work as 'bston brut’. Word and bull ing stand together in the pychologieal history of postwar architectuo, with an authority granted to few others concepts. the early years of he fio ‘ew buildings aryuhere in tha world had such ahold cn the imagination of younger architacts, especially inthe Englishspeaking countries, and ~ above all— in England ical. was the largeet ving building | olaciectal importance in cure of erection in Europe atthe time, and it was to ft goninely potarbulidng inthe sence tht it innovation | separated it eonitvly fom Moder Aretoctare efor 20 Honever naively Le Corbusier may have played into the hands of Manet ees lke Ana orga by s2yng "I tho building | have wanted f0 erate ‘to-Uniwas nmfaakabiy aul was nol enceied in me sion ofa prewar syle (os wore To n= Sano the sous secondtandevecves de AF ie buihings forthe Festal of Bi), The om mor este aegis Yet his appraisal and resolution of thie problem was the very opposie of defeats. Out ofa superficially Aiscoursging situation, Le Corbusier conjured cone rete almost asa new material, exploiting its cradi- tise, and those ofthe wooden formork, to produce an architectural surface of « rugged grandour that ‘seems fo echo tat ofthe wellweathered Dorie col- tums of femples in Magna Graocia ~ it was not a auestion of "Architecture is that which makes mag nifcent ruins, the concrete work at Marseilles start {ed as a magriticent ruin even bofore the building was completed. Nor was it simply a mattar of ex- Ploiting happy accident: the rough wooden form work which was allowed to impress ite grain, knots And blemishes on the face of the concrete was [aid In carafully-planned pattems of planking, which broke the surace inte large squares and thus cre- sted a kind of modem equivalent for rustcation. The ‘coarseness of tho surface, the pattern of the plank work andthe teale ofthe building produced an ar- thitectural texture that was not enly intresting in iteolf bu under the hard glare of tha Meditrrancan sun gave something of the effect ofthe coarse tre- wertin and giant seale of tho apsos of Micholange Io's St Peter’ in Rome, on which Le Corbusier had written some of the most emational prose in 'Ver® tie architecture’ The Brutalsts were not alone in seeing that in this building, medern architecture had finally come to terms with what norte Europe loosely calls "The Mediterranean tradition, a. eansummation umor” ‘ously expressed inthe form “the frst modo bulld- ing that has room for codkroaenes", Without doubt itis one ofthe buildings inwhichLe Corbusier anter= | most convincingly into the grat and true action of ritecture as he understands the building in whih all he thotorical consonances between, m2 dem technology and ancient architecture in ‘Vers | v0e architecture’ most nearly come true, Indeed, Mar~ soilless whove the promise of that book's tte it {ulfiled. The Brutalist generation in Britain never tied of pointing out the tile given to Kranslation ~ Towards @ New Architoctu fiod Le Corbusier's intentions (aa did the original title of the German translation also; ‘Kommende Ba hunst). Reading ‘Vers une architecture’ as a sarod tort they knew that it promised not a new arch ture, but simply architecture ae i had always boon and always would be, as Le Carbusir believed the term had beon underatood by Perret, by Phidiaas by Mansart or Michelangela Right or wrong, Le Cor busier had vouchsafed his younger readere a vision of a grandiose Mediterranean architectural tradition. An historian might object that they were in ear interpreting the ‘Units in tho light of a book writen twonty years earlier, and yet that book offered & phrase that seemed a veritable key to the mejestic and magisterial authority of Mareiles (and ofall ‘other good architecture as well): "LiArchitectue, est, avec des matigres brutes abl dos rapports fémouvanis™. To construct moving relationships out of brute materials was to be tho central ambition of Brutal | 7 22 Ilincs Institute of Technology, Chicago Yet theft completed building to cary the tile of "Now Bralst'wus not Govan str, wae the tment precise ination ofthe bullng style of Mies ‘ander Rohe to have appeared tide te USA by {hat tine, and vlew of importance accorded Inordovelopmets to te pressnce of bston bit tnd thor natural sifaeed mater thi po {nical ovorcee inthe sesombly of highly fished Smite mates such ae glist and ste, the Yochologica mately oem 2 surprising bo- sinning el the moa tt spproved the rau con Srote athe Unt eald eval wel approve the he that Miu ven dor oho had made of los glare Sra brick nthe campus tulngs for he Tne ne Stato of Techclogy at Cheng Init oft fe commony regarded a tho ‘in {tounfoetouenos” of Mice dotaing, to hon ty whin ho hancls tel for he sid mate fa iis can be. compared ith Le Comusiers onany in demyhstogeing conrste and recog: Ming frat tn speof thereto about Tear had been ringing inthe ear of acer scien from te tine ofthe Futorts ona tye he actly no mae mane theeye in Modern Arcactue. Apart tom glzing semua atest and isle structure sto! wach had eon antited fo afew very spe- Sifted singe ike Chareav' ‘Nalaon de Vere! ‘tPane Under normal sveumptances, the soe! ron sted ini behing tho reproting eared Sptocal bling ortinancos Bree Let and eneiticl reading ofthe locl asagultona Mies had been abl fo give an ox fousatame t nen al he srctures onthe IT Patan and ths ofr tho ostines of «grammar of Sahat ramig Ths grammar vn notably, a ‘Sinema tat ofthe “Unit was cone, Furor Tre whore tho Unt’ ha, perforce to layin is {Caincal Imperfections, tho Buldnge at IT were Martane of precebrrcrasmanship, espece ty tthe cing. Howove, ft shold Be remem. tea ent woling ie a ntiral this concent Mosiwott aus suttoring to conerete, and that no seateth tip in welding only avaliable the Gan Ties tangles oly distbted 9st tae poco care fa irra dost te shsnt aT was fly undoatood in Eovpe st the Timo, became the weldng does nat register very notoaky in tin book and mageie iets That were sifualy the ony source of information to European attest stidens to whom currency festfcions sl made the USA as romate and fccesible othe moon. But they could else that Mies had made an hon- lie crea cou balers FRWFEL eel inate an abstract eal of srctral sess, but tere roal substance having surface, subanoe and hase aft ouyad sich Dalian tlt diel crepeshetable as thesa of bese Be neta) And the steel ana nly made visible, but te man ‘ne ofits asomby nage manifest, otha he out 1”[AvMalKHatiand'Thomaowoten’AritestrlDe- eee miso cene Pe ike tenses eee ae aig ilaes salinaesc oar MH Re enetiamnc cr raccrcy Pee arcane Bey ieee cautecin wieorsl Fle cede ori caviry wine ee ely cel iocaracteoe eee ere fedora ndcrat know the buildings through euch abetactroproser- Eee eo rns Fae wibtar atest ner eos Sess dan aon Merdicr snot of he rex Peep en eters ey Poe acae. con Screen nwih Dv ha Gerd Renenithislentenie nicer aces AMtasindne ae Gs anes eaten oe ee se snr) have sys been ret rots itm hy scot ppston to Ms van or Rote taviigonth etic sroewv stot eae [econ ot te cals sens eine aoa Sha onan, Tay ace a Rae es ‘was purely the transposition to one esteemed mas- seed io dn fr pie ae Site rspoaipy and aes ees ie Srurdelsssong fe eager ens Sri ts funda han to seas oie tho sony lad pthc os te. he Stop toward the couon ote aero ene Pe scan mine toate te seers ® 3 Secondary School, Hunstanton ‘The first building completed inthe world tobe ct lead ‘Now Brutalist by its architects, was the school at Hunstanton in Novflk. In chronological fact i hed been designed even before Hans Asplund fat ‘uttered the words ‘Neo-Grulalit’ since it was the ‘winring entry in a competition held in 1949. Not only ‘wae the award of the fist prize toerchitocts as young, as the Smitheons then were, a remarkable ever, but that it should goto so extreme a dosign was equally remarkable, since Denis Clarke-Hall, the essesacr, was no oxtromisthineolt, although he had been one ‘of the pioneers of modem ecxool dasign in Brita But, by the Ue the school was complated in 1954, the Smitheons had become avowed Brutalsts, and the term New Brutligm wae rapidly gaining. cur- reney outside Britain ~ a circumetance which cleat~ ly disturbed some of those who wera propared to admire the school, but not the Brutlist programme ‘whics had subsequently become attached to it. The reason for tho long delay between design and com plation was one of those spasmodic stool-shortages OF tho post-war epoch which constantly interrupted building-work, but whereas Le Corbusier had turned such a crisis to advantage atthe ‘Unite’ the Smithe tons wero too young and sbsclutist Yo consider Scrapping the deoply pondered work that hac been put into the stecl-iramed design for Hunstanton. It (would be visible steel or noting. While ths insistenee on visible steel gives a clear Indiation of the stylistic afiilions of Hunstanton, there are some striking and important difference irom the buildings at IIT, diferences which were largely, an! understandably, overlooked atthe tim. ‘To begin with thre fs no risk of the facades beng ead a0 endless, In the Llowolyn-Davies sense. At the expense of some of Mios van der Rohe'sintl- Tectal clarity, the building makes noat and unargu- lable comers, and the elosod symmetry of the com: positon ef the main elevations of both the school Proper and its of.ying gymnasium is immediatly Erating to the eye. This te particularly so in the Guinnesium whieh, being » single volume, reveals the more clearly its symmelty inside and out Inthe larger block housing the school proper, sym- Imotry pesias, even fits less obvious. The central Imultdpurpose hal is placed across the shorter axis, ‘nd ie flanked by two open lght-courts, The rest of the accommodation —servige rooms, heavy and dirty toss, onthe ground flor; classrooms on the floor bove — is disposed in large rectangular loop en bracing these three central voids. The main elev tions ato expressed in terms of room-sized aroas of total glating, oF room-sized panels of blank white brickwork, ether for privacy oF to act as wind-bra ing forthe structure. However, the symmetry of the lan and of tho elevational pattern, should not be teen as major architectural objectives of the design, however ful the architects! minds may have boon of Witlkowerian or Palladian ideas, The formal clarity, like the insistence on almost total glazing of wor ing areas, is to be sean as part of a determination 19 : 2 to make the whole conception of the building plain and comprehensible, No mystery, no romanticism, fo obscurtes about function ar citculation, In this, auceseded almost too well for a large section of architectural opinion in England that had become <3 to empiricist romanticism — in spite of its manifest importance in the development of Eng lish architectural ideas (the “Architectural Review’ called it'the most truly modern building in Britain) it does not form part of the collaction of sides as: sombled by J M Richards forthe use of official lec {rere sent abroad by the British Coun. {But what caused even more profound shock, notonly to architectural romantics but to educational senti- ‘mentalist ae well, was the attitude ofthe architects te the materiale of which the school Ie constructed, ‘Tha basie framing is of partly prowelded steel fra Ines, etleulated according to the Plastic Theory (then sn innovation in itself) for extreme economy. The floors and reeslabs are built up of pre-cast | concrete slabe, and those are left as exposed con- Crete on the underside. Walle that are brick on the tutside aro brick (the ame bricks) on tho inside, fairfaced on both elder, Wherever one stands within the school one sees ite actual structural materials ‘expoced, without plaster and frequently without paint he electrical conduits, pipe-runs and other aerviet tre exposed with equal frankness. This, indeed, i fn attemat to make architecture out of the relaton- ‘hips of brate materiale, but it is done with the very freatest selt-denying rotrant Nothing is dane ta ‘dramstise' the sorvices (as we Gone in some of the open-ceilinged committee rooms | at the United Nations building, New York, for in- Stance) and the standard metal sections of which the frame ond window-framing are assembled do not repay intense stody in the ways that those of Mi ‘work at IMT do. Whereas Mies builds up rich and Complex mouldings, the Smithsons assemble their Standard sections with a conspicuous understate ‘ment that makes it seem that it must have been they, {nd not Mies, who had sald "I don't want to be inter ‘tting, | want to be good" Tn this, aa in other agpecte of tho building, the Smithsone might be said to be conforming to basic patterns in English archtoctural psychology. In im= porting the Miesian style, and thon appearing to of- fer to correct it (in some ways, Hunstanton is more frank sbout its materiale and’ structure than any= thing by Mies) they may be compared to Colin Campbell elfering to remove certain ‘irregularities! fiom the style of Pailagio at the beginning of the Anglo-Palladian movement of the eighteenth cen- tury. But even more securely within engrained Eng {Iieh traditions is the insistenca on a pure geometri- tal grid of horizontals and verticals, and an air of Suppressed extremism, of gentlemanly ‘bloody-mind= edness’ imprisoned within the grid. Not fong after the building was completed, Nikolaus Pevsner gave A series of ratio talks on “The Englchnoss of Eng- Tish Art in which he drew attention to this barely ‘suppressed geometrical extremism in both Gothic tnd Rnaigsance architecture in England, and citedHarawick Hall (1880—1597)a¢ a prime example of this tendency. He did nt go onto note that Hard wicks architect had tha same name as Hunstanton’ = though spelled Smythson ~ but other comments {ors were notso slow off the mark Those who damned the Hunstanton School for mer ly Ymporting a foreign syle misseditsintnse Eng lahness, Those who damned ~ or praised ~ it for its Biutaism were on more secure ground. Even so, some influential cris doubted whether was rally Aan exarnpo of The Now Brutalism, Thus Philip John sony ho probably know the Shithsons and their background as well as ayone on the inornationl stene, obserrdin the “Artitectural Review atthe ‘end ofa glowing ertique of Hunstanton: Now thatthe Smithtons hive tured against euch fermalitic and ‘composed designs toward an Adolt Loos type of Ant-Design wich thoy eall the New Brutal (a phrase which ls already being picked up by the Smithson contemporaries to. defond stecten).. hile the Reviow’ added in footnote: “The architects thomeslves would certiny disagree with Mr Johnson's separation of Hunstanton fom the New Brutalistcanoa, eventhough the tem had not been coined when the school was designed® Tho situation was becoming confused by the many ‘hinge that happened fo the Smithsone, to arte {ure in Bits and the worl, and the word Brutal ital, which was being heal overworked alrady. 20 n| ene Ly TW] TTcic | _Seeey— rh ariel {44 Progress to aformalis® ru has bean eid Hustarton Setool va Sal as bea on nin tho words The NOM pubihod in cay ereutig and nd es, Brain er mening tah os rid Sad oc some ee one th, wie recomed ON done, ot on bat The pra sil blond neaton wh ore enemas wet acts rat tht were ging inte HS sows ac totaal. Ousanig tmore en tn ae the eaten aa ote these act to mov competion poet ne ang nad proved exces ofc ed Arto = le ae et ‘ara of et raniioncome hired re a a Eres mee orton ih Om pha! Sear ne coup SE cn Nat Hendra abot ns ohn Ton Morgane ign oe tay ptr apne he New Bal othe coe arent ct a ‘ dealt almost exclusively in noe hele 2 nan et ole) ara conn Me den Che te re uk oN cr del ta ot Co eT on oe ay a oor Seaesvcton, asain 3 rumen 600 ce ain ne argh was cleat 0 avorators wc we Tran. Tass oN Ie oom of tn oop se we toe oar thance fo cuppote et ‘the other qual tanto, an ton wer eg of co ecw we a, dial mma techn ee anon Hen, human Ato us rena one ec na en ecole ect ed ie ha tonal amid oo iin a Hae ly ae ee oe, re (Par cial obec ee ann ate ote Sn lee eta reerpesety oa However retivon designe about fo Bo State seen a at computes, 1 weit oven Cae Spence wh nosed wr won 9 Sa nrnn cada 6 ese verano Unto tan wid rama ura oe een dency, ough esa of 8 my tuba” byte Smithy ton oe ered vst te we sone: Bal pt al oh HP sori fle are iin mae pore a me red ut wit et fo the i need wean oy the aly ere plan, Tough We could a rardly be called a centralisd pln, is intense for rary veal tho rect influence of Witkowers a cevstaion, andthe use of simplified geo Palate id to digpose the pats suggests also = mer iaf ta Corbuners “Tracts régulateus A sey oa drect nflvence from European ‘iturgial {hoch ely at uch an ealy date his project ti mire by the Liturlcalit school of church ae yen outside Bran, and appears tohave aioe considerable influence onthe entree sub ag torte iter competion fr the Roman Cath mites Npedral at Liverpool: But as far asthe devel- saeeat af tho Smithaans ws concerned, the im cPrence of tho davon is purely neuaive — t was ports formal" Palladian scheme, and their thet on atta arly dato (1051) was to cost hem dee ofthat faction whose reply tothe com the 2ifhg and empirical mood of tho Festal of are eon merely 10 fall back on the roles of Beta aymmety. Even as late a8 1957 baflement clasrceanion on ths subject porssted in some ane re and a contbutor to a discussion on THe aint lla in “Architectural Desig’™, coud dex ee arte and many others had thought thatthe New Grtalism: Ne ornfed a revolt agains... the lack of aout BRE thing, the romantic pasticheros of a cay Bran, and ite offspring, the free emp Fete Mjorved from Sweden and loose handling cal martseated elements in works Tike the Hes of etes achools.|magined that the BrutalistsoP= foray ll he areca to th basic castical ree Pose tS the pars of the building nto an organic whole hee tha Smitheons were from regarding Beau vont dorsi as te only entidot to lack of rigour ae eet inking, waa 9 become clear — fos those ar eresad to look — in their next two, major Bro jects fects. Lane housing development forthe city of olden ar put out to competition in 1982, end was sarap Chamberin Powell and Bon, 1t was the first Wor competition fora housing scheme for some Joare and attracted great number of entries, of year jeable variety both in quality and architects- cared —thore was evan one strict Zhdanoy ine agen in People’s Detailing”. The winning design Srere ily routine exercise in Mainstream Modern wee ah the usual mixture of high and low Blocks ‘ether clagantly styled in a frmaistic menner, but {he Soithaone and come of the other younger = wre feagein revealed a muchmere radical pprosch. ‘wer ati te taan[The radicalism lis in an attempt to 20a what they were designing as a complete environment for hus ‘man beings, nat just the provision of a cartain num: ber of bedrooms, living r20ms, kitchens and sofort packaged into an acceptable architectural compost tion, An avakoning interest in the ral ite of the sities, something of an ecologist’s approach urban ‘man (though they were not yet using the word ‘habitat’ influenced by the work of saciolosists lke Wilmot and Young, was eventually to become one of the mainstays of Brutalist planning theory, but at Golden Lane itis stil subservient to the manifest influence of Le Corbusier and the ‘Unité at Marss! les. This appears elearly enough in the roof-struc- tures of the Smithson project, but what is equally noticeable is the attompt to ‘rectify’ the errors of the older master. Th ‘rua interieure’ = that dark corridor without natural lighting — was always the weakest point of the ‘Units eection, and at GoldO? ne the Smithsons moved it to the exterior of the block enlarged it to a sizable pedestrian walk twelY® feet wide, and denominated it ‘straot deck. The concept was not the Smithson’s private property — it appears in one or two etudent projects of the time (possibly under Smithson influence) including anath- © entry for Golden Lane, which was to be, in the end, of eater consequence than tho Smitha? “ent, This was the scheme submitted by Jack LY" \vor Smith which, though equally unsucces®f! Paychologicalandarchitectins! |e,noted here: the deck wae Intended to function |socialy and payehot the Ves logically in the manner of | rioet which — in working clase areas in Britain ~ i ng, main public forum of communication, the tad [tonal playgro ‘aly publ |space avallat sale go down to ground level at any point it ‘one single building, which perforce had t "PPreciated or understood from any single ee ide necessary fo would reduce ft Marelles, and stret-deck schemes a er regarded as a serial composition, held Gether by the continuity of the circulation route 122 ll implications of this topological’ appro% [LcoMPesition by means of tho circulation route® i very clear inthe Smitheons’ next major Pro ject. The extonsions to Shtfild Univeriy wore the 30> lect of « competition (won by a routine moder ‘lass-bor style entry from Goline Melvin Ward and Fartners) which ale attracted a number of very ox rome entiee from yourger ariel, eluding & Compact and sopisieted varaton on Corbunlan thames by dames Sling anda. poject by the Srithsone tht roomed fo ben dstivrate atone tventhing thet was conmony regarded as archi {ectire At ft sight the grouping of the blocs of socom in un toa dl reo ory Pisturenquecompositon bythe ta depined ‘ers but whore Picturesque compostoal tech figues wore norally sed to build op images of Tchand confusing abundance, te ofect ofthe ar Tangemont ore bythe Sthsons appre in he rowing fo be slot abarbatve sod dalibertaly Srtepecol, replacing tho swoctess ard ent mrriaty ofthe’ Picturenque wth 2 blunt and in Sanpromising statement of rctore an fanetion in Seon pa Above al made lan statement of {ho les of cca ot ground ov on elevated Steal doce, oon pedstian bridge spanning be {oon one tuling and the rot (sulin confno- Ton mn dutbriage for srie-tune thus empha fing that human Sings arent he ony boca that ult) Deceve of ti florsiog dplay of he Sealaton system the unifying pingpe of the de Signin he absence of any comprenenibl vi Seth becomen the connect of he ecu Ton Hance the use of the form opelogiea! to [SEclare the dian aterm not epped by the Siiaonsthmeelvee, though Smithson imselt SEmticd more than onco st this prod that h found {Opologiee conedertons of tha tor & growing eccupation is erger design or ecamiom of hia Stal project was widely Tait sth te = it as no conceivable precedent hat he relutrap of svuctre fo gla Tasheve boon romatelysiGoened by the onset the Tele ofthat goat ish ant-aothoto Sir Oven Wits the'Dry’manctactring block outnt tho Mrlstnown "Wet factory alongside) of the Boots Tees tant at Beeston, Notinghamtire, For the Shuhsone, he an fomatom of Shofild was leo Sr extome peta; nlhing Iter from their drawing Soard han ute the sere ‘eoen louse! gol toy hed completed some pvale voyage of Solorign both atarditoctrl and were now toting boce Noveteles, the extrerem cf the Sora nea pectoral aceresated bowie Sisetsted mumbors of the generation of stots sino wore besoning to lok fo tho Britaite fr Ieadeip, and thee eneued a tradition of wld \iionary town panning projects cat inthis opal Giel mete am even on or wo major bung de Sona suc at the Fun Palace prolect of Cedi Price®, one of the most complete ‘an-buldinge ver projected in Europe But ths was not the dr ‘estion in which tho New Brutal a8 an interns Tonal movement wa ow headed, That deton er streialy moogered Byte Wet Og ox Side Ban of which anyone felt routed took it Batali" ~ Loui Kab ar gllary building for Yale Univers, s 1 The ‘Fon aloe, romted by he Iowa imprest end dng Yee Ivano ea comport (nosh ‘onaat fom ic a42 Yale Ar Galery, Now Haven The introduction of the Yale Art Galley into the Bru fais canon was fret euagested hy lan Mcallen (then executive editor ofthe ‘Architectural Review} ‘arly in 1965, but # had already caught the eye et the Bratalst connection in England. Not ony chat ‘appear to share thel preoccupations and oy but it also mated a clear bre traditions in Modern Arete fd omar oF npoted ak with existing US ure, whether native nd tllonaliec in this tis not surprising that it should be In some ways, almost ss tentative as Hureterioe tentative. Like Hunstanton it has a formal ial plan (rather more sophisticated amber ssf ie Theo win eee Gea twoen fairly widely set conerete columns, Ary a sage scadeni pipes (asin the equonee of ‘axie) and there is also an air of deliberate diese ‘ally in the way the whole block tums its back on tha, pale nea oe cia a ee Tho whele bulking has «poner lel he buling, bocese te Porhan ineachte’ might be a hee ee ‘stance, the glazing of the courtyard-wall wal the building, Its a functionally adequate and ie c falition tothe problem, ute honesty te neat ints frank admission of Kah’ nai to ae the fc tht fr reason of ainsi oor structure Became, as bulk & foe src built, «system of braced But this realy of stuctur alter tho visual fact tha th space-trames tothe eye, al mathematics does not 86 siiuctures appear a¢ the aye, and when a floor ate and clutter, s during the propacten, th ae arch 8 means of giving onder they cover. Though the lucid than at Hunstanton its quality 26 an archi. ‘tectural artefacts and as. fs and scale to the spaces design i overyere les its mysteries contribute to toctual experienc. Th fe concealment ofthe sian wihin an anos uspieced deem ofeoncn pence ons one neaenan of th eparenes of ing the sta, thee shor fights weaeac en langle between one floor andes ae ; ab tween sheer walls of concrete, unmodulated by 'd building or albad one, but this i not the pointat sraimund-rates of academie classicism could ee eter cecrat i eee tributed the elome Testi cr of awe the Laer tho present stage "Architect 43 Manifesto The Smitheons had been contributing siétements Tid hon on Tho New Srtaism to the English SPccturl magesines evr since the publication Stier proected house in Soho, and continued to Se eS Bir into 180, athough these miscellancove tora activities had eonibuted some resounding thetoreal poser ~ "We lve on moror-made cit IRS ce ©'to te decuesion, thee had beon v0 extended statement of aims and orientation until the Sheu atm chango inthe efor staf of Arch otra Desig’ began to take fall effect in 19 Birina the cure a tho previous year Thoo Gros, 7 ih te Sathecre ad sho had been asocited wi Wresda ot tha ach as Edoardo Paolo ined Meee otarchtectural Design and was ble to iiog the magazine's policy toward the Interests of, srerrsnper generation, witha conscious appeal fo Set opnion The BralsPalladan wing of oi see panotted inthe creation of publishing outlet 1 thar views, and one profited better than the Smithson ? Sra tet jor maifestation was in August 1854, Then ter Sitheon contributed a study of recent "eet sours in Holand. nvew of predilections aang hat van don Broek and Bakema ameter tne heres of this loco, wth usr reer85 van dan Broeks house and the Linbaan Te the fact that Schone, But eqaly eonspiuoes Beene es far ore flr withthe history of Modem ret thn wore orsenior me a ares iit acitect inthis connection be- ares is sjoum in London) Bu alo ess wel ceeieand gues sch as van Doesburg and Kurt eared te lors say Bran ad Tot im as Sain as when he arved) and, sbove all Gert rrerenpitreld is iven an importance strikingly at sree ih the general opin of him inthe Buk Pehl wring at th timo. There wore Snel oa and cotampsany esos fo hs Tee les caat nthe role of tho guiding father Fae so patty absent rom the Brits see vical created the incomparable house at isos 1929-34 the onl uly canonical modern dining Europe. Holand har therefore living seat master Sharon hare spoke for al the young architects i ‘than leaders by tho far of nove of Sidr ‘generation paycologeally moro. seprated am thom than was the case In any continental etnuy where invasion and occupation hed created tore obvious ita betwaen gonaratons. Almost un intentionally, the Btls ha to fil his vacuum Of leadership, and assume the role of guides and mentors that was almost thust upon them by st dots whe cout write For meet, and neatly al the young architects | trook|'Now Brutaisn’ stands for an aritectutl 6 ideal whichis very acceptable: we would have to fay these things (ourselvee) if the Smithsons did net da eo But the Srithsons would have to say a good deal more than the things that were contained in the Ratement of January 1955 betore they could ful the role of leader, Like all their public statements represents almost exclusively their personal pre tccupstions atthe moment of puting pen to paper, tnd was virtually incapable of standing by sof with fut glase or explanation, and in this ease a pre mble was provided (apparently by Crosby himself) which attempted to fix an historical context that would establish the relevance of their views. The Comaleta document reads aa follows. ‘Tho New Bratalism im 1954 anew and lang overdue explosion took 2 in arcitectral theory. For many years since the war we have continued in our habit of debasing the coinage of M Le Corbusier, and had crested & style ‘Contemporary’ — easily recogrisable by its hrisuse of traditional materiale and its veneer of modern’ detail, Irames, recessed plinths, dacora tive pilot (sie). The reaction appeared at last in the shape of Hunstanton School (by Alison and Pe ter Smithcon) an illustration of the ‘New Bras The name ie new the method, 2 revaluation of those advanced buildings of the twentios and tht les whose leszone (because ofa few plastercracks) have been forgotten. Ae wall as this, there are (certain lessons of the formal use of proportion (rom Professor Witkower) and a respect forthe sensuous tse of each materia (from the Japanese). Naturally, fs theory which takes the prope from the gonerally faccopled and easily produced ‘Contemporary’ has enerated lot of opposition All over the county tne have been asked to explain the new meseage. In the hope of provoking as many readers as pos siole to think more deeply about the form and pur pose oftheir art, we ashe the Smithsone, a9 pro Phets of the movement, to eupply a definition or Eatement hich, comethat edited, appearsbelow. FOur belie that the Now Brutal i the only pos sible development for this moment from the Mo {dem Movement, stems not only from the knowledge that Le Corbusier is one of is practitioners (start ing with the ‘béton brut’ ofthe Unité) but because fundamentally both movements have used as thei hardstck Japanese architecture, ite underlying idea, principles and epi ‘lapaneso archiecture sacuced the generation span- hing. 1900, producing, in Frank Lloyd Wright, the ‘open plan and an odd sort of constructed decors ion: in Le Corbusier the purist aesthatic ~ the si ing screens, continuous epace, the power of white fnd eatth-colour; in Miea,thestructure ane screens fs absolutes. Through Japanese architecture the Jongings of the generation of Garner and Behrens ound FORM. But, for the Japanese, thei FORM was only pat of f general conception of Life, a tort of reverence for the natural world and, fom that, for the materials ofthe bull world442 Yale Art Galley, New Haven ae utalist connection in England. Not only did it and romant, ox imported and rationalist, tn he Gcumstance Is not suring that shuld be, venty years older than the Smithsc 4 plan (rather more eophisticated ini Sper ey ta Chnertrcerseeer ny use of Plastic Theory — i ae concrete space- Weeping tween fay widely aot const tho English Srtaits of th tunstanton est Easent of sppealio basi aritectiral principe 0 acadamic pines (ein the see regular geometrical forms spec op ee ot sie) and there i alo an aire delivery et of doliborate gi for customary good architectural mentee eae ial i tho way the whole Bock lo block uns ts bac Publis oat with a lark ba ato Dothing about the inter except the os tenet “The whole building hs eee = | powedul image! but it fe an image thatthe mins es memory after one has left aes fetal prnene both paeana Seen Paap ecu ea below tho quliy and invenverece aay le well the bug ti inctonalysdoyatore eet toluin lhe problem tu tere he et admission of Kahr ay beta way of covering hs facade eh Oe ot xretsion ofthe stuctrl aya ate The stem the fat tha for vo ieee! thc thal or renona of iplgg cre 9 ppatontepacerame at floor structure becamo, aa bul sete es boars nsoad iene of ecrone and cute of an exhibition, they are. mont earn tectural artefacts and-as a meang af a a and seale to the sate 3rd seule 0 the space thay cover Tesgh design i everynhore las lund thant eae? is mysterce contribute to its qualiy an an so cual experince, The concealment of ta win anes! pre damote ing the stao, tee a tianale between one fi “ ott fights arrang the nent rising be ‘wosn sheer walls of concrete, unmodulated by anything beyond the vertically planked shutter-pat- WA of the shuttering, It ie a classic demonstration of rite, fact remain that this, the high point of in ‘ae to the visual image of the rest of the build ae eee secret On the sre elevation moddian 2, Soncesled, on the courtyard side it is fhe pauling ot albad ono, but this ienot the point cornet 898 of the argument. What is of £2 to the gail &bulaing that ie wo deviously devoted be aarimtiles of academic classicism could Tat romiated to @ concept of The New Brutallsm™ ised that ant-academic a-formalty of the Shetfld pro mean? The gPtleet what could the concept NOW Smithson Iibuted fe, Smithaons, convenienlly enough, OP 43 Manifesto soureretweld ereated the incomparable house at Ideal which ie vory acceptable: we would have to fay these things (ourselves) if the Smithions did net do so." But the Smithsone would have to say a good deal wore than the things that were contained in the atement of danvary 1955 before they could fulfil the role of leaders, Like all heir public statements it represents almost exclusively their personal pre ‘occupations atthe moment of puting pen to paper, and was vitally incapable of standing by tse with tut gloss or explanation, and in this case a pre- amble was provided (apparently by Crosby himself) which atempted to fi en historical context that would establish the celavance of their views. The Complete document reads ae follows. “The New Brataism ‘in 1854 a new and long overdue oxplosion tok place in atchitectural theory. For many years since fhe war we have continued in our habit of debasing the coinage of M La Corbusier, and had crested a style — ‘Contemporary’ — easily recognisable by its Inisuse of traditional materiale and ita veneer of ‘modern details, frames, recessed plinth, decors tive piloti (ie), Tho reaction appeared at lest in the shape of Hunstanton School (by Alison and Pe- ter Smithson) an illustration ofthe "New Butlin The name is now: the method, a revaluation of those advanced buildings af the twenties and thi ice whove lessons (because of s few plastor-cracks) have been forgotten. As woll as this, thera are (certain escone of the frmal use of propartion (fom Professor Witlkower) anda respect forthe sensuous {ao of each material (rom the Japanese). Naturally, theory which takes the props from the generally Siccepled and easly produced ‘Contemporary’ hat {Generated alot of opposition. All ever the county we have been asked to explain the new message Inthe hope of provoking #8 many readors 38 poe sible to think more deeply about the form and pur~ pose of their art, we asked the Smithsons, as pro Phets of the movement, 10 supply a definition or Balementwhich somethet edited, appearsbelow.” "Our balof thatthe New Brutalism fe the only pose sible development for this moment frem the Mo- ern Movement, stems not only from the knowledge that Le Corbusier ia one of i practitioners (start ing with the ‘béton brut of the Unite) but because fondementally Both mavemente have used as their yardstick Japanese architecture, its underlying idea, principles and eprt tiapanese architecture seduced the generation span- ring. 1900, producing, in Frank Lloyd Wright, the fopen plan and an oc sort of constuctod decora- tion; in Le Corbusiar the purist acsthatic ~ the aid jng toreens, continuous space, the power of white thd earth-colours; in Mies the structure and screens fa absolutes, Through Japanese architecture the tongings of tho goneration of Garnier and Behrens ound FORM, But, for the dapaness, their FORM was only part of f general conception of Life, a sort of reverence for the natural world and, from that, forthe materiale of the built wordIti this reveronce for materiale — a realisation of the affinity which can be established between build- ings and man — whichis at the root of the so-called |New rutaliem, jl has been mooted that the Hunstanton School ||which probably owes a2 much to the existence of |Vapanese architecture as to Mies, isthe first realise ion ofthe New Brutaligm in England. | This particular handling of materials, not in tho erat sense of Frank Lloyd Wright, but in intellectual appraisal, has been ever present in the Modem Movement, as, indeed, familias of the early Ger Iman architects have been prompt to remind us. What is new about the New Brutalism among mo- vomonts i that it finds its closest affinities, not in past architectural style, but io peasant dwelling forms. It has nothing to do with erat. We see archi tocture as the direct recut ofa way of life. 1954 has been a key year. It has soon American advertising rival Dada in its impact of overiaid Im agony; that automotive masterpiece the Cadillac convertible, parallel-ith-the-ground (four eleva- tions) classic box on wheels; the start of a new Way of thinking by CIAM; the revaluation of the work .2f Groplus; the repainting ofthe vila at Garches?” Cottsin obvious points jump out from this txt: the mixod natveté and knowingness of the preambles which ean stand a a potted intellectual biography 2f the Crosby age group but is already out of date 352 th Braet tite to clase! propor, ion was concerned. Already at the time of ‘Parallel of Le andar Peir Smithcon had ana "Wo 9° ‘et going to talk about proportion and symmetty's— and it willbe noted that neither topic fs mentioned inthe statements above. it was also a rgrettable — but probably inevitable ~ irony of architectural Ms- {on that many Brualist usages should become part of the repertoire of clichés that kept ‘Contemporary ‘alive as‘ ‘syle’, and within three or four yoar® © this Preamble being writen. In the Smithtone’ statements it isthe roferonco® Japan and peasant building that are the most c"- fsing and/or misleading. Neither of thom had bee? to Japan at this date, and the architecture ie ot {hat of Mayckawa/Tange achool, largely ae that wa {2 featur in the lator history of Brutaiom. The mithsons’ Japan was the Japan of Bruno Taut! book on Japanese houses (Houses and People of {pan Tokyo, 1837) and illustrations of the Katsura detached palace (& revealing footnate tothe Sith- sons third paragraph roads the tapanese firm Gt® of Hell showed houses, 2 monastery and palace, it colour forthe fet timo) and servos to lustate the ene ofthe sudden discovery of whole culture apsble of caryng, as naturally as clothes, ata ditenal rcectre whone spa sopitaton {emed light-years beyond the capacity of tho West Something similar applies to the references: t@ ‘peasant dwelling forma, The search for Witkowe- tian architecture in Italy, and for the ‘Units, had been part of a general rediscovery of the Medi nea basin by that ganeration, Through ayer to apn, Kor ea tored by Le Corbusier's sketches (and, doubtless, by the art of Cezanne and Picasso) they sam in Mediteranean peasant buildings, an anonymous architecture of simplo, rugged geometrical forms, mooth-walled and. small-windowed, unalfectedly nd immemoraly at home in its landscape seting, Discovering similaoranalogous qualiisin.eaycro tershouaes inSeatlandorfarmelnGtland they lated this vision ofa ‘Basic’ architecture into a sor jee of rural housing projects prepared for CIAM-X ‘in Dubromik. They mensured against these stand. ards Aalto's work at Saynatealo and Quaron's at Le Martella, and finally Wanslatod thom into built fact, not through the agoncy of the Smithsons, but (of Richard Llowelyn-Davies and John Wooks inthe Village rebuilding at Rushbrooke, Suflk. The archi- tects ofthis echeme have since become anathema vnth the former Butalist connection, but a the time the Rushbrooke housing fascinated and provoked them into a lengthy (and largly approving) coro spondence inthe ‘Architects’ Journal ‘Tho insistence inthe Smithson statements on the importance of materials almost st tho exponse of Allother aspects of architecture may cause no eur prise in retrospect, since common opinion has al Ways regarded the New Brutalism 25 ciofy a mat- ter of exposed materiale and untreated. curfa but this emphasis does less than justice to what was inthe Srithsone' minds atthe time. Tho extia- trdinary collation of topics in the last paragraph (with #2 inexplicable terminal query) may give some lu to the other things that pro-occupied them: preoccupations summed up in the sontonco "We Foo architecture as the direct result of a way of lite. Like many othars of thelr ago, they wore tying to tee thelr world whole and s00 i tue, without the interposition of diagrammatic political categor uhausted “progressive” notions. or prefabricated tosthotic preferences, That world, and their way of Iie ini, included Gropios a8 a crumbling reputation from the emote past the works of Le Corbusier as lanciont monumerta, IAM asacoruptparliamentary body in need of anti-oigateic roform— and Amer fan productdesign and advortising a the inheritors of the drive and adventore that had gone out of ‘Modem Art? and of much ofthe skill in dota ing and formal composition, that had gone ost of architecture, As was to become clear later “Any diseussion of Brutalism will miss the point i itdoes net take into account Brutalisms attempt to bbe objective about ‘oalty'~ the cultural objective ‘of socio, its urges its techniques, and £0 on. Bru faliem ties t9 faco up to a mass-production eo- cle" But in 1864-55 thie facing-up process had only just ‘begun and lacked the sophisticated techniques that were to be contributed bythe Brutalist’ associat inthe other arts, These activities, uch as the pi neering studies of the ‘Pop ars made by Laweenee dat Bes’ Api 5 a Alloway and others, will be discussed in the next ‘chapter, but an early attempt to face up to a more Primitive society and its way of life! in architecture, may be seen by simpy tuming the page of January 1985 iesue of Architectural Design ‘There, the Smithsons review the work of Viadimir Bodlansky and Atbat-Afrique, expecially tho low= 0st housing in Moroceo. They daw a comparison ‘with their awn socio-architectural intentions at Gold fen Lane and go on: ‘What we termed backyard ... they term ‘pati’ drawing on their knowledge of Arab noeds from the ‘rea of greatest migration «.. where the establched tollective systom includes outdoor lving-spacs. ‘Whereas the Unilé wae the aummation of a techn {quo of thinking about “habitat” hich started forty years ago, tha importance of the Moroccan bull ings is that thoy are tho iret manifestation of a new way of thinking.” To judge from a ‘Statement of principle’ that ap pears at tho bottom of the same page, but might have been more eifectve az pert of the preceding Butalist statement, tho new way of thinking was fo inlude not only a close study of the way people ‘ctually lived, but slao a fair degrea of permia- Sveness in design as well “tis impossible for each man to construct his own home. tis for tho architect to make it possible for the ‘man to make the fist his houte, the maisonette his habitat. ‘We aim to provide a framework In which man can ‘be mattar of his house, In Morocea they have made i a principle of ‘habitat’ that each man shall bo at liberty to adapt for himsel.” “The thn, stdcand-matchbox aesthetic in which this ethic of permissiveness was offered in Morocco harély accords with the idea of Brutalism as an architecture of massive plasticity and coarse sur- faces, but what the Smithsons meant by Brutalism at this time certainly included Toe eeettoments tat woud normaly be rege ee ec settere tobe coved a ‘reece $254 feet ahbiion dele primaly th Lenn et netic images called fom nome bier of eye, acianiic and athvopolial ce met ot mle ee sera t nicropanhs. Al ha clearly been sole Ty pelasecor are very direct (ad oft ines Se ae ort one Ge sr) er any cored tht impact fo there who Sito Parte was on of he cwucial stages in thei Tron te atest pene of 5 agree Bata te worth noting that ac 2a ne form of abstraction wok question, TE Ghesograhie aprodeton in two. dimer ta ot orc tagh vl on the qualities ofa Se are” tht rested from prntng wn a ae teinrgomonts on urlazed photographic aoe or aaa sothela wee ook abs0htclY er Emething te tha been son dr ots ee denecle dk Mion, and an Msuon "owt and Porm in London (with which anon had boon ivlved atone tag) but the sores on of these vol questo enhance the Tat outed humanisticlence, distotion, obscurity and 4 certain amount of lion whose Was subversive innov By 1864-85 ono could seo at laa! thee dif conceptions of tho New Brieiey architectural gossip and criticism; ating in 5 Corian thovehitl Certain thovehtl modernists with = background (a group which has aluaye none (Pop Architecture comparable to the"Pop AAW Pop Architecture" comparable to the'PoP AM SN ‘as subsequently appenre in Britain and Ame The early ate ms rio, sine FOP ne cause somo suri 00 oP ‘tit commonly regarded as a phenomene” EREES butte’ group who assembled "arael {ue 08 Art ware among the very firs, anya the wo to dc hr ateton tote 28 El 2nd ich Imagery of much advertising and COT letin ~ hence the references to these (RK ite New Srualit "manifesto of January," From the point of sinters? i of view of Pacloa ay thee s aarian advertising was asa source of Pm ful and outrageo len os toe oita920us images (comparable. it O99 ies ‘ose in ‘Parallel’) but as early & "ihe imithsons wer less Smithson went farther than thi, and aor © eona84 American magazine advertisemen’® s ation? ni hoy Kitchen equipment, for instance, as demons! ofa way to way oie a coma ilindeaood cura rotons eo ee ‘ght n holographic ote Re ue aan lace or the kitchen of Le Corbusl In the hey ft it Ihe hero te par uch ors torn from the ma gon the were eins and depp {Gil he Srithsons contiouted an are eres But Today me Celect Ac tothe student mage hat ‘about the same time that the ‘House of t Fula bing done anon tne wal 2) meee aule talus Both of emotive imaget ae plars of a style of life, a standard of finish a that day-to-day existence in posta eet 80uld not hope to emulate, Outside the #2 Me vouchafod in London were oscasional amet gto dignitaries (private citizens could not import snd hee, the wlan ne Galas the 1855 ‘maior. The sgh of auch an arect sdb dating for more ton one eaten. {eit an hao bean sad, sd tstimony ofr it chal tut man io an fon to 00d os, and accepted progressive sentiment, Not Sete progrecui! has of hot ell dom wee tier ant-Ameresa members ofthe La ei the tine of ited Gidions book ‘Me ston tas Comman, or even eater, the SPOS commercial products had been spac Pain ols ae 'bad dongs that fo aio inte adopt an accom ora in abl tude, But for tone whose ves ee roars by th polities ofthe Cold War ee rr ot Moar hrcitecur) Iwas poe a ete Caos or Phmout fr non ee eevee Uni Eropeanarciestre US a cece to have tapped an inexhaustible cori Soom andrew symbols ot peed ond sro hoersoctneteivenvenee dieplsyes poet te gras nth mile yor oft Oct censor reproach oto fain ma see we European araects andthe intl ato ot ca appeared 1 are (og Nilo dein Neen move whe Bish designee Cet eaten parclt the American site 2 re Saat commend of tal, jos and cee ace dimensional coordination of einen ean ail in fing acessotios arent mae no the teal design (ath ths a compet ae aarinoghts an Bish cr Seton and busing) Si ef the Faure wan it © Sone, a The Hevea Cortuiere GlrohaniCtros pu situa a metor-enr, But hse aspect of hous sec rain on nono irs fet ended automotive technology which Le Corbusier had ro jeoted as un-areitectural (nolably techrial obso. lescence and physieal expendebiliy) wore accepted by the Smithsone ae an inevitable part ofthe mass production situation, and woro fused by them with ne of the moct traditional of architectural eoncep- ions, the patio-dwelling. The design had been com: mnesioned forthe annual ‘deal Home exhibition in Londen, and what the Smithsons offered to baffled (but often enthusiastic) viitors to the exhibition was Pimple box without external windows, and a door to only one sda, eo thatthe three other sides could be packed hard up against athor similar buildings to give high residential danstes even in single Storey developments. All the rooms were it from Continuous glazing looking into a small oval patio in ithe entre, the height of the root boing varied in continuous eurve to give daylghtfactors suited fo the use and sspect of tho rooms around the ato. The level of technical equipment wa clas intend td to surpase even the vision vouchesfed by the ‘American advertisements they had been collecting, tnd this preoccupation has persisted in latr maa inative projects for domestic design thatthe Smith tone have produced. The proposed form of atus- {ure represents a eiffrent kind of raid Into US in tustial design however: the double plastic shell tear conceived as the equivalent ofthe paneling of {car body. Thus, no single panel was interchange Abie with any other In the same house, only with its {win in another house, This situation, long since ace cepted In the construction of industrially produced Shells (suchas ear-bodios, altcraft fuselages ete) of Course rune exactly counter to ideas current in Sichitectual circles on prefabrication (eg all the various prefabricating projecte associated with the names of Groplus and Wachsmann) whore the st- tempt has always been to work towards a single Universal element that can fulfill any rola the steve ture requires. The practical economics of the kind‘Splsces cn FRIGIDAIRE BUILT-IN COOKING fold-back or countertop units — Which one for your new kitchen ? Ot sign shloephy exhibited by the Sion Suctie inles sek of production iat ‘that of a major automobile manufacturer, and o tend of Gon ant ch he Sao scam devoted) maating teenies compute those ot Ostet The Hows of the lure was | therefore ‘syled’ as much a¢ it was designed. A complete acsthatc of panels and joints (avowed modeled on automobile practics) was devised, and ‘ho exterior even boasted a eorain amount of token briohtwork that underined its afi tothe eho mum eng of ero inde ho dome ap Plianees inside. Even the possibility of an annua mmadol-change was entertained. Im site of is paola, this was sls very ex me conception for atin {im many ways much mmo exteme than nol Senet’ contamporaneous Plastic house designe forthe ‘Expoition des At Menagers) and att often in the history of B talon, the attainment of an extrome posit wa falowod bya withdrawal toa more tedonat fection The Pope patochouse was ot toa ton to. Smihcone produced acter pln Fouse mockup fete i tet sae year of 16 i Foveted very ferent intentions ar proed = Jet tornt aac Concuresty wir thor iteration! santo telus nthe plate arts, ring the eal ie Tene tor hed beon an ttn o oxabih fy English “iat” ofthe Parbasad "Groope c= pace’ Smee Bree rtate the Pelee Toba Fron or Melle hud Tong since abandoned te favor tase eres of integration of hear bl the roupe' eopace’ a tat tine the prlet lime to noting, bu tne pants arcitete, seu for and cles wo hed govered fo cute fe propor! conus we mest and tiny decided Sag an exton ead for eatore Po mpoe ‘ble to evonstrn The to Tomer), The sow Sonintod sf erevonmente ov contuctone doved Syrcupe ea conaining (more ales) ofa 8 seulptor and an architect, but thove was no over: ra or programme covering the whole mani ‘Sas it liked, and 25 fodvction to the ai do — s5ma oF programme &: festation. Each group worke Lawrence Alloway wrote in an int catalogue "The independent competing 9°2uPs do not saree on any universal design principles would nots mit to the dogmatic Wens of ayntnesis eld by La Groupe erpace” a In"This it Tomorrow the visitor is exposed to space ettecte, play wth signs, a wide range of materiale and stictures which, taken together, mako of a nd architecture a many-chaneliod actly as fac: {ual and far fom ideal standards a the treet ou fide." At Toast one of the group-constrvctions could be ‘garded as an altempt to bring the, strgatinaide the exhibition: Jona. Voetcker, Richard Hamilton and John McHale put together the, fest Pop-A ‘aniosttion to be seen in any art galery anyers in tho word, complete with juke box: advertising imagery, science fition quotations, and made Gras Play wis communications thee 'OPS10SY, on oth ited with tha “a er topies generally ase0c Classical approach in’ England at that timo. From this extromoy the exhibita shaded Hoh seronn the other extrome of ordarty geometica! exerciseg inthe Siar ore gr although the Hen. derson/Paolorai'Sitneon exhibit cannot be itd eat ine oa mitnson Say one potnt, it mut bo sald’here that theirs was = todtionlist exh 4 very long way removed from the Pop-Art oF Ltemiam of Vosiker, Hamiton and McHale Their Patio and Pavilion, though Put together out of non-traditional materials sveh 98 sluminium and corrgated plastic, exhibited an eitectral form that would be deccribed nowadey® PY critics the Vincent Scully as sensentaly @ megaron in a tx Imonos-enclosure™ and was described bY the group themselves in tho enhiition catalogue In terme of arrTnasettion ot man batt tho Fist neces: sity is fora piece ofthe word, the patio. The second hnecessiy is for en enclosed space, the pavilion.” Such an appeal to fundamentals in architecture neatly always contsins an appeal to tradition and the past ~ and inthis cane the histercising tender cy was underlined by the way in which the innumer~ able symbolic objects made or gathered by the {10up were laid out on bods of sand in a manner Feminizcent of photograph of archacological sites with the finds laid out for display. One or two dis- ‘ceming ertics, who knew their Srithsons and were Acquainted with Henderson's preoccupations with the follavaye of the East London poor, described the tuhibit a the garden-shed aesthetic’ but one could not help fecling that this particular garden sheds with ite rusted bieycla wheals, a battered trumpet And other homely funk, had been excavated alter the atomic holocaust, and discovered to bo part of European tradition of site planning that went beck to archaic Greece and beyond, The Siithsons were slready beginning to exhibit that fascination with ancient planning that wae 9 take thom to vist the orignal sites in Greece, and vas ultimately to affect their own idoas of sito or ‘anisaton ina practical manner in the sinetven- intios. Had they abandoned thelr extreme anti: traditionalist position of 19592 Cortainly they had made » move in the seme generel direction a8 did many leading figures in the world of Anglo-Saxon ftchtesture on both sidae of the Atlantic ac the heo-Classical revival set in (that is, fom Philip ‘Johnson's synagogue at Port Chester, completed in this same year of 1956) but thaira was not Classi clam in that sense ~ the pavilion was not placed ‘axially in tha pati, and the planning ‘erg! was more like an iregular version of Japenese rat planning than a clastical system of modules, Further, when Peter Smithson came to present tho results of his Groek investigations in publie lectures in 1859",Personal observation on the actual sites had 2 of nee hin hat he Grok wed eo etion nor geometrical devices In their Par but had procsoded in « manner anale00e 2, Shot University project, te various BM bing sited for convenience, oriented fra topos lated by connecting "OU, of WF this was classicism, then it was else ge very dlfuse and generalced Kind fH WB oy Sonaion then any inthe sense that Dis solos were aifnalit io eunyin Wee with tha traitional subject of rt the NUMA" fence. Stil it was clar that the Sm¥MONS Np, “iawn inpecepy rom" See ach to an Other Architecture comparable BiB’ conception of tun art autre’ But he vas very gradual indeed at this stage, ¢*Pe thi own eye, as ono may se om I (made in response to a very dull daeuseit Now Brutal in'arhtoctural Devon) Published in April 1957: * hip Sener; Poche US) as yeh iy rans “Hf academicism can be regarded anewer to today’s problome, then obvi leetves and aewthatictaciaues Of pang, r (ora real art) must be In constent the im : the immediate post-war period it seem {2 show that architecture was ail POSSI sEepiined to eet against loose planning 204" héeaion a compact, dscplined ares al Simple objectives once achieved 28° rem on andthe techniques sed 19 220% be came useless. So now objectives MUM From in e From Individual buiaings,daciplined °” fog 1 Catecalaesthatiotechiauee We Oop Sr examination of the “whole! pre i eEelations and the relationship thet ie nity has to thom. From this tu8¥ Meg «8 competel . Feenmeletely new attitude and a non-cl Any dl ‘ny diounion of Brutal wil ise toes ot ike nts acenurt Sra, OF Sistine about eat’ ~ tho cute Sp, URES. te urges foci 2, Go Py 2 ie upto a mane power S fouah Posty out of the cont Fete ee a are panel Butlin has boon siacust Tse Satonen on Mis stslmentis not altogether seein 8 nb na, the Su laked Sten house at Watford Smitng tet I8 tho year. Here one." site cunoyufeaueracy, a routine and Ure aiding bride peeitéed mostly by routine and UME age cruggettcally, Peter Smithson MievelOP ay © related to areal and COMP ag eh 2 mon epeculatr-buit houses of the aroe extracted Ten Peetu of ostentatious effect from the poor the re talus symbole that could be contrived on tomically possible range of materials, ried tinbec But he did not accept thelr Tard et out fo do as honest a ‘ear Stations of ho lcs! eal, icing ioe ae osamicaly possible range of atria, the ra The volt, ike the other houses in woul pee basically a simple brick box, but wih the ape rathaons contived tome more enters to eye! arangements than are common in Br 100 esa architecture, and tried to uminate vot nindows placed according to intemal vith whan the eutworn eubutban conventions need tery tho. AreandCrafis tradition of the derived Ih cour. The result has netther the ninety ating of tha House of the Future, nor ata ee necosst/ ofthe Pavilion inthe Patio te ti eneivod an extraordinary hostile response Fane Spe extracts fom the the correspondence 38 hse tho “Architecturl Review’ wil show: colung ot ego ma that in their efforts to avoid do- vig’ the same (os spaculative builder) they, have tng the tater or even a8 well, but worse, Now I dome et ak that this is Because they lack ably equiped with a sound from chiofy brick feultural objectives! Gan it bo that thoy are no Gamry. 2" (Norman Haiso): theory ge at Watford, Hertfordshire, ... is @ sree ettrece of architectural iitaracy in plan sheeting En and appearance” (Fred Lasser) Fngtacy, not equipped with «sound theory: had the Smtheone for ence actully achieved ant-archi Meena, br even lune architecture autre’? They hed TEtainiy Nauted the picture-book conventions of Sfrctous living that had eo long circumscribed the Sritona ef modem domestic architecture, and SMhovgh the result was not so extreme as, say, the Shells University projec, timid souls recognised thot twas a sully eubversive building o152 Anote on ‘une archtectre autre’ What e cubversive proposition In acitectre UES SE ana han oon freed, by ouside ir enor cbaote many concepts and uEapEr PIs tot bet raion, an yt hos E38 "Tare was tomething in the aie in the SORES she rncoor ies hat sungeetod that = ry bvorse ord was emerging, someting TEES ot arte could nt absorb, Ne abe the inimains of auch a ord Meas a the smitzons” Sheil scheme) errs sta ath cna the term ane atch canes eet pecombe 65, Whatever houaht ee arm to time, wan snaped By Cee ee tBaukune ard Wokfom' August {i atl sbtied ‘in nevgetroper Fa don dor ratteltoniachen Entwing) (A rely 155 flat arctectral devlopmert Dut he 0 raroned the moaning ofthe term 1 cove Hie Bayon the purl formal aermatves to eclangy- te metectre tat Ha necessary Hore 10 re. ‘Statute tll mening of tho phase f ome of ‘heNew Bulan Ashen eee moto already, ho form was coined Dy anneey ah Tape concept of un asta, rd warinonded fo stand for something aly rad Te rency aratctre whose vehamence transcend he nome of ariectual expression soviet as ie pamtings of Dubie wanecend the sar of cera at an aria whowe SSncale of ont nore an ft romoved frm those Sf aentcckeal composition’ as thove ot Pollok Aree tenor rom the routines of partery com: feslion fa balance, congruence or contrast of ‘ome mila dominant rectangular format we figiedmuth whether Pollok paid any regard To if dgen tp canvas when dling hi action Printing) ap wrentocue 2s uninhibited in sr ‘pons othe salure of matoale'e ound ss wore the composers ef sigue conta In thr shoneeonsua sounds recorded Thus, th final and absolute abandonment by me) ‘que concrtte! of any traditional kind of seale °F ven tho twelve-tone sarios, and with it th 2b onment of any Kind of harmony or melody (1 fence accoptod in the theory of music a8 10404 the ‘eonservstoires!) gave a measure of the Oe tovwhich une architecture autre’ could be &%08e to abandon the concepts af composition, SY™M™ET crder, module, proportion, siteracy in plan Stuction and appearance’, in the sense a°22P1C, inthe theory of architecture as taught inthe EET dos Beaux-Arts, and plosly preserved nthe MO Architectore of the International Site a6 war successors, By this token, ‘une a Autre’ ought also to have abandoned even # of structure and space — orrathr, it ovat don the dominance ofthe idoa thatthe ex tion ofan architect is to employ structure '° Spaces rol Many would agroe that to abandon this Uhh, space synthesis to abandon architoctere Noor , but all that is roaly abandoned ia the PONT thea of arcitoctr that has oon Cte un the Renaissance, Society at lage hae NEVE Eo "uch intrest in this notion, because ithas ney, do with the architect's function In relation (0 2°01, fs function in jhe ‘What the corporate and private patrons, who Mas 12g to represent the dectes of sociaty, have demar of architects is environments for human 2CNN Ey ‘and symbole of eociety's cultural objectives most of human history some kind of sPace/S\NE ftafact hasbeen, the unquestioned AMC oy fatitying both these desires, but thio we 2°, the only possible eoution, and it 18 2¥2" 8 today. A medorn ovample would be a drive-in 1 ma, where the structure ebove ground level Sr Closes no space, and the cultural symbole 272 ors sient lightplay, But one can adduce, MMOD Ti primitive and genuinely a-formal examples ther eG tenttely dovoid of structural elements of eM volume, The eamp fre of a nomad ibe, f" 7%) ance, creates an environmont for RUmED SF activ and’ marke i with a powertul syMBO} 8S the size and shapo of the wseful environment 1 defined by no structure, simply by the est OFA? Sri sng and destino the wn phys slology ofthe individuals involved andthe actvi2? thoy sr pasiorming. | ; th e this, ven a genuinely functional approach such to cultural preconceptions, and the fll Baty 2 ‘modern mechanical services, an ‘other architectures ‘might wcll employ structuro merely as ® WY Tolting op ctor envremenal canto, witout endowing i with tho. monumental significance enjoyed when massive constuction was almost V4 ‘nly environmental control mankind poreessed. 470 with those controle st might or might nat hapPen fe define « space without endowing that volume with the cultural significance loaded on it by societies ‘rapped witin volumes defined by massive 46 Foriaes (sc) buildings, suchas Frederick Kiesler's "Endlee Mouse’ of Heri Greene's dwoling Howse at Norman, Oklahoma, only superficially fulfil this Concept of other, The Sugden House comes nearer fo tin some senses, precicoly because it is put together out ef traditional matertals, and this accen- luntes its underlying deviations from the norms of Constiveting environments out of those materials. So Fred Lassorre ebserves tho Smithsons are,‘ Crates and havo not employed the grammar asso: lated with domestic planning in brick and wood, but seems not to have entertained the possibilty that they might be literate in another language, &m ploying a sifferont grammar But more fundamentally ‘other is the approach of designer Ike Buckminster Faller, expecially a5 the architectural profession started by mistaking him for a man preoccupied with creating tructuros to nvelop spaces, The fact is that, though his domes may enclose some very seductive-seeming spaces the structure #2 simply a means towards, the space morely a by-product af, the creation of an environ ment, and that given other technical means, Fuller night Rave satlsfiod hie quest for ever-highor envi onmental performance in some moro ‘other! Way: ‘The tuth of this has been dawning on architects for some timo, and many have come to adopt an tltude of extreme hostility towards im, vsuslly Coudhed inthe form of ridicule and harping on cer tain obvious questions, such as, how do you make fan entrance in a dome? (The answer, euriously enough, is the same as for a towor-block by Mies van der Rohe or an Unité by Le Corbusier ~ you faite it of the ground and go in undemeath) The Smithson are to be included among those who have adopted this atitude to Fuller, 80 are practi- ally all cthors who could carry the name of Bux {alist In the last resort they ara dedicated to the traditions of architecture as the world has come to know them: their aim ie not ‘une architecture autra’ bul as ever, "vers une architecture! Flee Greene; Neqnan(Oshom, USA), Hous on th Ps. mina Ft; Catone (ins, USA), oes153 The end ofan old urbanism Evo i no slogan or Ibe had emerged sport: nectely to erly the Snitsone and the ter: tational nobork f Me-inking ond It woud Ail have Became necessary fo vert name of ‘ome ert fr the purposes ef journalism and Hi Storewrng Fiat becuse thee work represents 2 recognmale ond secondly and more urgently, Becauo af the slo thy payed i to poles of the Modern Movement In he absence of the name ‘rit thy wold resonable bean oun "Team, and vemnered te he Sesoyers of CIAM. a [he reatorsip between Brutal ious and the Ecllapee ofthe original "Congres iterators hicitectre Madera ls dict, the sever of TearX im being about that clap deberte tnd conscious ~ at esl in the verse ol a [fitalln to ee thie own Iss provalne mater what the eos, becaus they woe conned that ther wer ight and thir opponents mong, Hose ever thna Ideas wore wot oremight rover ‘as tho fomaton of the Team aan x acidon ‘ecrtcorapacy: the proces by wich tho rand Old movenent wee denied goer back te the Desimings of CIAM poser acuity, and the Gtenon of Team wis pat of the elves Paley ofthe movements older rember even though the cutcame was no what Wey end, To recapitlte bil: om the seventh congress (Gerumo, 196) onmris t war the eno of trclocul students espocaly. tom Bran ioc to Cla to rrarslah comet wie mle atonal Moder Movement os at he fc of feat masters ad to nega tows Non-par anrd of arches vae tat woe dacussed in section 1.2.AtHodleadon in 16, and shove all atte crcl nth congrer atAieon Provence 195, the mass movement of students genes In strona, Ai indeod, was almost ovorheimed by the enh of siderie snd young. araiecs, fr sihom tas aad of eossumation tthe grade ‘i! wih the Lat Sothys te oterangan 2s above al wih Ls Gob, ewe tro, * pat organo by Le Cobutars ofc ont ‘ooo th ew completed Uni strelle was tot th crowing moment and mejor sea of tha hit congrase At ise aon th caso with euch emotional orca sions as this, the high feslings of Aix ware followed by akind of ostorgesmie ‘Ax in sing how far ‘had faded from CIAM ‘So wrote Team-X in the preamble to their program- ‘me for the tenth congress at Dubrovnik, The Con- ment Is es symptomatic of the fs were tho names of i eignato- ” fie. Looking back now, it is clear that the compo Shion of Team-X (eo called because they were tntusted with producing a programme for CIAM-X) fepresented an allance of ‘genuinely ike minds rather than a temporary grouping of dissent ele Imonts: Bakema, Candis, Gutmann, Howell, van Eyes, Voolckor and the Smithsons were becoming increasingly ted by genuine fiendship and admire tion for one anthor's work. On the other hand iti Aiffcut nat t0. aens6 an odour of cynicism in the motives of the older CIAM in entrusting this group ith congress X — some gonuinely belived in tng the young an opportunity to prove themselves, bul for ethore the enly way to slonce the tide of criticism they could fe among the younger mem- bere wae to confront thom with the realities and responsibilities of power, inthe hope tat this would tame them, But, with four British members Team-X was half commited to the English view of CIAM and its {ature bofore ite mostings over began, and the es: ce of that view io contained in the quotation ‘ivan above: CIAM was sean a¢ the guardian of the ‘and the older th In s0cred vision of la vile radious members were censured for having lost f point of historical fact, of course, this view Kravesty of what CIAM originaly set out t9 do: Le Corbusier's vision of tla vill radieuse’ was only one ‘of a number of town-planning concepts and urbaris- ‘ic philosophies that had been contilbuted to CIAM's ool of ideas, There were no reasons for expecting ether founder:members to abandon their own arban Visions in order to support Lo Corbusier's and even José Luis Ser’s ‘Gan cur Cities Survive?’ the of: cial compendium of CIAM town-planning, synthe- numberof viewpoints, even thoughitwes com piled after political sificltiee in other parte of Europo had allowed the French group (andy the fore, Le Corbusier) to establish a virtual hegemony over CIAM. But the war, and other causes, had allowed that hegemony to become dominant in the minds of the ‘young, and successive volumes ofthe ‘Qeuvre com léte! had taught them to interpret tho Athe ‘Charter through Le Corbusior’s eyes: and tos somo form of wile radiouse’ as the corporate am- bition of IAM. Algo thore is no doubt that the ostenar aspect of the pre-war heroes ~ midlen ‘ged, greying, world-meary and wise in the ways of diplomatic compromise ~ must have come as shook to those wo had previously known them only in glamorous photographs taken during the Athons songress or inthe fervent writings of their yout, Now inclined to be a lite sceptical of the pos- "bly of applying even the simple concepts ofthe ‘Athens Charter among the conditions then ruling in wartuined Europe, presecupied with husbanding the structures and resources tl n existonce rather ‘than making tabula rasa! and stating again, they ‘must indeed have looked, in the eyes of the young, ke titre to the goat vision. Soon aftr Aik, and a fow months aller their fet Biutalist manifesto, the Smithsons gev® thelr view of tho relations between Team-X and the CIAM tablishmont in ther earliest published statement ‘on town planning? “Each ture ‘Young architects today feel a monumental dissatis- faction with the buildings they eee going up around them. Fer them, the housing estates, the social centres and the blocks of flats are meaningloss and ie ‘vant. They fea thatthe majority of architects have Tost contact with reality and are building yesterday's ‘roams when the rast of us have woken up in to ay. ‘They then go om to atack the Garden City concept (ever a favourte target in Britain) and then the ‘Rational Architecture Movement’ which ono knows ‘rom other observations made by them, to mean the townplanning Idess (en housing in pariculas) of Gropiue and his followers a eet out in ‘Can Our Cities Survive? "The social driving foreeof that movement was ‘lum-clearance, the provision of sun, light, a and Shed the ferme of tunconalit scecture, {be arsuetae of te Acadono ptod wish fo Iewed th gost ped of abla and Dada, and Ge iyo ae apt rouvend The was tho paid ofthe rnmam tichen andthe Four Functions, the metal carceptl acne” Tho complaint about the ‘ochancalconcop” of Te ove ncton’ ole, of couse 6 he bane Drotulates of th Athen Chara, wich aeparion ver Wrk Reedenc, Recreton and Cron osu our freon’ ofthe ey. Even te oi Monbors of Cai sosoplod tht hs sls wa Togs but ott erly aang tow EecsSnal categorie soc ae tho hist cone! (Genour cites Suriver) orthe Cor’ (CIAM. {socom ten, Butte young wae fora eitarc jection of al he Athenian extogai inch they Hequenly dared a ‘lagrammatc, Sine proses of ter rook was sunmaised hun by The Crosby he CIAM congrse at Ac {jae itn fh area skye ee ieder Movement the Seon showed Sion'epctuce not Candie (who bad peoduced Sono reratable Morosean hosing) 1B Bake Si Toland and several young mon who also fund the Alone Chater obtleta They formed group tc exchange infmaion. Tis group, Team 10, wae erttustad by CIAM fo prepare the programme or [the Toth IAM congrose at ubrovik 16 (ap Pai im paces Warearcesh bel eee {icnthom.The otha of ral forthe projets britad way ough, tre of human src {in athe han functional ergunsation the arc Ings aia rakes! kg Provence in 1964 en : [At Dubrovnik it became evident that CIAM, with ‘over 3,000 members, had become too dlifuse to Cover any subject other than by the merest gene! lisstion. There was also a cleavage between the founders, ald, famous and very busy, and the fol lowers, young, underworked and ravenous for POW er. The congress broke up leaving Team 19 in poe ‘session of the field. Most national groups dissolved thomesives. Team 10 continued to meet, in Paris (1985) and Otterio (1855), but they met as ioavids- (Of course, CIAM did not immediately vanish, and thore was’a goad deal of recriminalion and back- biting among the survivors, which persisted, well aller the Ottela congress, in lengthy corespond- fence in all th world's leading architectural maga ines, about precisely the kind of lagalieic point that tends to obsess the minds of old men in defeat = whether or not Otter had the ‘right to decide that “the name of CIAM could na more be used By participants", 1o quote Bakema’s summary state- ‘mont afer Otterlo had broken up Tha plan fect was that tho old men were defeated — atleast with- the framework of the old CIAM. It was evident that much had been lost — the middle generation, particularly the lalans like Emesto Rogers and Ignazio Gardalla, had boon deprived of the oppor tunity of sueceoding to the seats of powor vacated by tho ol distant memberslike Kunio Mayekawa had been deprived of the payeholagieal support of mem bership in'a great international organisation; even the youngeters e20m to fool vaguely cheated that their later mostings (eq Reyemont, 1962) did not cerry the presto o attract the worldwide alten- tion accorded ‘earlier mectings. If Tam-X were loft 'n possession ofthe field twas becausa over ‘heir potential aioe had fed, with the exception of ‘the few, ciety in Europe, whe at that timo agreed ‘with thetn that townplaning ie primarily an archi tectural ‘and thatthe word city stil stood for something of positive human val the Dubrovnik clues: "Each architect is asked to appear, project under his arm, ready to commit himself We are seeking the ideal habitat for each particular place at this particular moment ‘wo ace intrested only in the outcome of this callaboration (wth sociologists and ther special lat), nt in diagrams of rolaionships or analytical studies, but as architecture." There is an impliit rebutal of Le Corbusier in these quotations: when he first conceived the ear- Test vorson of the ville radieus ‘the gon ralized solution for an ideal ste, avoiding ‘all ape ial cates, and all that may be accidental’. The young, in unknowing pursuance of a definition ofBrualsm once ofared by Toni del Rentio — “Do 4 Corb doos, not as Corb s9y8" ~ applied them ‘elves instead tothe propose built environment of ‘ pavtcular place with alle azeidental and special feature, the unigge soliton fo an unique situa For even those wno fal required to rject the eas 0 diagrammatic could Socopt the ‘Units’ a the ideal habia for Marseilles in 1960, Coneurent wih this emphasis on the re alee of a parovar place (comparable with the Brutal insistence on the real natu of particular Imari ete) ic the insistence on commitment; that the architect should be £0 personaly involved with his proposed habitat that ho would bo peopared to Geland it ageinetdelalled soratny by hi fellow. professional. To tha young whe had raeanty emorged from archi- etre school, expecially in Bian where the ‘er ‘sien’ eystem was tll a workable eduction tech nique, the submission of one's work to public exa- mination by a jury was « work--day purgatory, @ customary fom of intellectual cisipin. To some Cf their continental conlemporaies it appears to have come ar a novel and welcome exerlee In ‘stetal slfcxaminaton, but ean one imagine a ‘Gropis,a van Eortron ora Neuia submiting hi ‘workto the indignities of hole questioning by men forty yours his junior? Even the midale generation had diffculie in acknowledging the exiciems of the young, as may bo. seen obcasionaly in the Published record ofthe Otero congrass. But if CIAM broke up because many ofits older ‘embers know that thelr work was too heavily com Promisod for thom ever to bare thet achitectral ous in public (ane, wor, they know thatthe young wore fly aware ofthis, and wore wating to pounce), the logonds of some of these older monbars suv ‘ed untsinshed, especially that of Le Corbusier, who had survived the disaster of Dubrownlewith Mkoyan- like cuming. His personeliy, his vision of the slant ity survived everything, and. continued to dominate the minds of the Team-XIBratlist con- ‘nection even aftr the Athens Charter had been de Clarod obeolte, This dominance can bo sean ele Iy enough inthe following short article or, rather, ‘horton, by the Smithsons which appeared in the ‘Architectural Roview’ at the end of 1957, and an wall stand as a roprertative sample of thoir writings on town planning Jt ccrmmoncos with an ‘dlorial introduetion which is, eeetvly, «profes: Sion of euppart for ther views ‘Throughout the past quater of «century, fom the first congress et la Saraz in 1828 to Is virtual dle solution last year... CIAM has brought together the masters of Functinalistarchitocture — Lo Corbu. ior, Groplus, van Eectoren and many othert ~ in scussion on the probleme of thee art, and of ety Planning In particular. Thee Gadngs, formulated in ‘methodically drawn-up doviments the most notable being the Athens Charter of 1858, now begin to ap n pear to diagrammatic, omafatic and taal Snare, Alon and Peter Sithon, who hve 2 Ttipated in much of CLAM postwar acti © tut cave for rephrasing ClAbte functional chronamorehuene and pmgmeictasie” yy Shon fle the arcle proper, under te 1 “Chater Gy (Ihe word ‘ester ‘comes ulin from the American ubarst Kevin Lynch, 994 Bm 0d into Bich culation through Denys LASS Sto clade reset towers in Eat Ls hater leds) = *The modern architect is interested in the imi tine of his buling in tho community and Me -Acilire ox whol, His Fist concern la withthe ©, Ter riem om wc the apie 2° og {he patel situation i evelved, Tho Dele ole rt Congress of Modem areteture (CN in 108 was concared not oiy witht 1" er ofeutmoced formulas andthe Acasere® Oy ‘with the actual functional basis of the new 8° op tecture, with esonomien, with te rational 2 Suldng and sso with foun planing, fo the FUNG, tional City was the natural extension of a Fur Architecture, “The situation for the modem architect 08 fundamental the same, wo are stil oneto™te tod we sil acopt the respon for 8 munity 3s @ whol, but today the word fenete ry 008 not meraly mean mechanical a¢ it 42 "hp Yeara ag0. Our funetionalism means accept ns realities of tho stution, with all their conta cy fand confusions, and trying to do. eomethinG, "yj. thom. In consequence we havo to create 384 ‘ult tnd a town planaing which — thous! San, {orm = can mak fl hear ake meaningfel the change, tho flow, the tality’ ofthe community. There must be Inherent inthe organisation of SYsc- building the rnewal of the whole commun Stig ture, Tae or exampe the probem of Ugg wee houses in an existing street; the HOU a neh sd ofthe strect form, withthe street HSMN 4 dlstinct urban idea; the thrae new houses 0%; not just Hive ff thie idoa, but should give 8 Wie. ation, sign, of new sort of communi 3 ture, But this al tin ane dan ne re pf ichitecture are no lone “ag, oe Le Corbusier's dream af a Ville Radie¥®® {Wepated by «goumety of crushing ball thats hon we ae now~thoplane move Sate patter on the tablecloth atthe View F* which’ nded, wheat may have engin tse our reactions the same ima! Sparking-point, excitement; our, ar-istrieal Masi. Cay Yo the droam was rel enough, and is stl relevant “Hore we have a promenade for pedestrians rising ‘ona gentle ramp to fret foor level which stetches Betore us axa klomete fight of tovraces Ite inked by cafés embowered in teo-tope that overook the fround beneath. Anothor ramp takes ue to a sec: Sha promenade two storeys above the fst. Gn one io of is a Rue de la Paix of tho smartest chops the other commands an uninterrupted view of the tly’ lime. Veta thd ramp leads to tho explanade slong which th clube and restaurants aro grouped. ‘We are sheer above the expanse of parke with a {osetng se of verduce plumb Beneath Un And to tho right ana leftover there and further sway stl, {hove gigantic and majestic prisms of purest trans: parenay ral tral heads one pon ancther ina Sataing spectacle of grandeur, serenity and glade feos 1 ‘Those hanging gardens of Semiramis, the tiple tie of teraces, ato ‘streets of quietide" ‘Their delicate horzontal lines will span the inter Vale batweon the huge vrleal towers of glass, bind tng them together with an atenuated web. That ‘Napendous colonneds which disappears into the flonton asa vanishing thread is anlevated one-way Sulosuado on which ears can cross Pare at light ning speed ..- When night intervenes, the passage Ot ears long the avtostrada traces luminous tracks that are lite the trails of meteors flashing seros the summer heaven This quotation is from a pleco called “The Stoo! which orginally appeared in'Untransigesnt in May Younis a deteription ofthe ‘plan vosin, a project OF 1025 which applied the prineipies end bullding Goes of Lo Cortusier’s eatior project ‘une ville onterporsine’ (1922) to Pars, Sie ail rorpond to this dream, but we no longer Dolcws In the means by which he imagined it could be achieved. His ety aly-orgeniaed choss-bourd ‘Tho general iden which fli these requ athe concept ofthe Cluster. The Clster-—a clo Init compiicated, oten-moving aggregation, but an regation with a distinct stwcture This is per tape ao close as one can got toa description ofthe Row dea in areitecture and planning ‘Given this description, the problem of building the {hoe houves in an existing stect Is ona of finding Pay tail ail responding to the stoct ides) fo hep tough tho old building taco and build up 2 complon in-depth, of providing s suggestion, = Sign of the new community stweture Ito traditionally tho architects job to create the signs or mages which ropesert the functions, api= ions and beliefs of the community, and eraate the In such way Ta hey ad up fo compre enable whole. The ester concept provides ue | with way oferealing ew Images, using the tech < |hiquos which have been developed to deal withthe problem of & mass-production society, the tech. Siques fr example of road and communication on- siering. Many soations have been put forward to Seal withthe problem af trafic — motors joining Population centes, urban motorways within com: n munities, peipheral controlled parking round the Sid cent, cut ot town shopping centres, offmater~ stay factories and roidental dormitories; solutions What sither sisperse the energies of communities Srintegrate them in an entiey New way ‘The accepted concept ofthe city is one of concen: {ihe sings graduclly Gocraaring to the edges To 12: Sidontal density and ground coverage, witha radial fondrpater tom the Nstorte nodal point. To his vio has lately been added concentric ealf-con- Runes low-density satelites Gaolated around Lon- don, connected at Stockholr as |imthe Cluster concept thre isnot one ‘ante! But |imany, Population proseure-poits are related to it~ [fustty and to commerce and there would be the Sttura points for the stalty of tho eommesity to find expression ~ the bright lights and the moving lerowde ‘These commetcal and industrial pressure-points are Connected by motorway to fankly residential dor titorioe and dormitory ueod villages. Is useless to rotend that life le so simple that wo ean al ive Shore we work’ wo have fo aceept population mo~ Bitty and be one sep ahead of iin controling the form it takes. Creating now images both forthe new “Tomentsthemoeives and tor the eld elements which fave tobe transformed ‘We must think out for each place the sort of struc {ure which ean grow and yet be clear and easly Understood a each stage of development. The word Cluster gives the spit of such a structure, and exist tng planting techniques, auch a¢ the contol of re Sidertie! "densities, comprehensive redevelopment find compulsory purchase, give tho power (t leat in England) There seems no reason why more freely flowing, more varied, move veel communitas ean- note constructed" This single article wil forthe purposes of the pr. rt book, core te represent the typical contents of 2 Sihaon artele on town planing of ti paiod Most of the themes and prececupations seen here recur throughout tbr other writings onthe subject, {nd are simply enriched, rather than transformed by tdsitional thematic material ~ especially concemed withthe automobile, or the Wansience and perma- nonce sf wrban buildings, afer they had visited the USA: whatever is aad, the conta theme romaine | sheave th ia! solution for a pareular pace at ihe present time’, with every new bulding seen a8 a us or uneuceesstl potolypeofanow urban ‘The wihole ‘cluster of ideas! isbest summed up none rmagiaterial mage! —the achem with which they won @ prize and great kudos in the ‘Hauptatadt Berlin’ ‘Competition in 1968. Their acceptance of ‘the reali- tioe of the siuetion’ went fo the oxtent of retaining | Inost of the existing street grid of the part of Berin In question, and then giving the city a completely | new patter of pedestrian cirulation on open decks | Tanalogovs to the terraces of the ‘plan voisin) two. Gr three storeys above the streots. This device of the two contrasting superimposed grids has the airofa direct rebuttal ofthe chess-boar Funetionalist aan town planning, and mey even bea onssios geet of corte for th estat a {ude of Gropue at CANE (ridgewaten when he sald tht Bein could nat be substation Toplanned bocauee the est Sewers and ater eorvces ve investment tobe disturbed ‘But the image’ of aupiiat an iogular network of up een on plan (hough that pattern has bese sash copies twas als the mean of verteal are hat connected the oi, eroundtvel grid te oe new ono above i Ths as fo bean evan one in which verteal transport tre lon was 10 bo almost ‘more the nom than herzontl move teth he mage ote now conan aint ofthe ld that had boon ancora Far ne fearing of the sees at ground eel Se ecto ciferent now tht the main sheeog sy the city had moved pinthe ai nn" SH eHaion of But theo lsenother mate or tobo soon merging ath ve of Bris town planing ne Picturesque method itneed oboe reese oF Picturesque method Itneds tobe emphanees or of Picturesque methods of ‘was not really 80 eur ei both the Brutalists and the eget in’ because it was an axilly-organised ein et cot mato cra wade crn der ope ‘accepting the realities of the situatic ree ee ‘effect in their Berlin ft : ‘substantially 0 network of streets, presented too big an etn was not on iy Per pedestian walks as onsidrableinterast gointhe development ; Project, turesque injunction to place in all (ee section 1 od bythe ‘Architectural R sisting that when new bull Into exiting en onal he 2) Asan en cat ‘oview', for instance, in in. as wee tobe ay ‘sympathetic! but sll evomedy taney notte {eles om the Smithone: tin teu houses nan exing seat city hae ali des etre onpyes ioe Behind this seominaly unexpectd ‘there were buried Sere ; attos which can plore eee itto give as an. a : le a de ‘cument submitted to CIAM-V jx Bite Bie in th cial rope tg 12 1238), This document, headed Thosyet ttt of en e017 of Contac 9 aisles fora in Cer Cy and peach eat oes on i importance of human acct, ‘and population mobility as mi bbrovnik papers; Sami of events 3 fly ox. Contains some a sstociation warn the Dur loctuels at commercioux de toutes sorts. C'est lo ‘soau do circulation ane échelle nouvelle qui dé termine le plan do la ville flu, Though coved in he Galle sei of rear ieaf se the opirions wer tho wok ofan of Sener comscentiouy English of Englichnn, Beet antngy, he irc ing foes tated tne neo icturesque campaign of the Archi tectral Review ie, aoe the gop between the Brutal andthe Symbol ynazape avert may be said fo {ste it when ne Sitar pled Gordon cere east ofthe Arsitectrl Reviow’s Town. Cat: Gsaghtamen to prepare the prspectves of Fe ee buling. But by tht late date tho cee eteteal ferences ofthe exty fea wore cacceing smuiged over. As ate as 1059, Lawrence sn ecaacurel Desig ws ail tying to ‘Alwyn Ny nes fly drawn by femining bis Weep te Pin stor knowledge of tho sweet taste reader al of Brian why, to crown of tho ttn elcegue rove, but in los than a year Siti Fe eaitecural Design cared an ale ona Ndr by none ater than HE Clr, 2 Rem mi very eubject nthe ‘Archie howe aro boon the feet harbingers of the Potreegue reve ‘hs closing ofthe ce los of pli eg accreosned te ih Praga uation, the Englishnese of English ra ome ing tae penn” | ences te bac lay ease, hat happened fo tom tan the pal ncn been to the Eg Se png = ahem the at Ton tad adage of dam: or aT dunpamed om the woo th Sites, Hor ig eoenon she Bch cone yh bocoeseartd eta he El rw comg fwd to pe cna weg ro at snd rd tt ea abel peed it treatment of building sur- tne see : wee fa Donn omen he New Bua ce the ened ncat Brun ae a dus and cole and pened BR om th ined th pl Sata a i ec mprnige cl C2 (eoaeston ta wold wes boeonng Deters ti? ert atl we opsoaly once ta ei one bug wt pon Se ats by Salona, er Aaland cate pater mt amped apna yt oe ba el Jo in about ond decade re- at work — shifts of fashion, 8SVS SP eeeCLUSTER Crry| Bes! | ‘2 61 Les Maisons Jaoul, Newly ‘The word Brutal was circulating, but the general architectural public remained unconvinced by the polemics of the Smithsans or the apologetics. of Erilice like the present author, and wore sil puzzled by ite meaning and hard put to find a building that seemed 19 match the ward, The steel and glass of Hunctanton, even when allied to the rough imagery ‘of ‘Parallel of Life and Art seemed too thin, too Glogant fo full the implications of violence and ‘rusty earied by the word “brutal Thon came the Maisons Ju! in 1956, and tho vac- tuum of architectural meaning was dramatically filed, ‘Tho lator history of the Now Brutalsm has much less {odo wth tha theoretical proposition of the Smith fone than it haz to do with the progress and per mutations of the atyle invented by Le Corbusier for these two-houses-on-one-podium at Nevily. They "became" Brutaliem, and although sympathetic rx tics like Denys Ladun might protest that "the Jaoul houses, likeablo or nol, should be hailed or chal~ longed, but not ciaseiied’, the very phraseology tl the protest suggests that he know it was already too lat, They were clarified Brutalist, and became the common standard by which tho Brualism of other buildings could be evaluated. Howavar itis worth noting at this point that Le Corbusier seemed reluc- fant to apply the word ‘brut’ to thom, prefering to speak of thelr ‘briques apparentes' and ‘gros béton “ime, Also James Stirling, breaking into print with an ariele comparing Jaoul with Le Corbusier's villa Stein at Garches even before the Jaoul houses were Finished, nowhere called thom ‘Brutalist’ ~ perhaps because he was clase enough to the Smithsons to know what they msn by the term. | Nevertheless the Jaoul houses were accoptablo to | tho Smithsons, who made frequent referenceto then and included them among the illustrations to'Cluster {City On examination, the Jaoul houses show many features that take thom close to the definitions of Brutaliom aroady currant or about to be enunciated. Quite apart from their emphasis on materials ‘as found), thoir power as an ‘image’, atc, the relar tionship ofthe two houses to their underground ear parking was a fir example of a building as a proto {ype of a new urban order ~ hence tho illustration in-clueter City! Yok, what causes the numerous imitations and dor- ‘ative of Jaou! tobe called ‘Brutalist has nothing to {do with protelypes of a now community structure, and a groat deal to-do with raw concrete. and ex: posed brickwork. Maybe there wore predisposing Causes ~ arhitects naturally looked to Le Corbusier {or authoritative statements in architoctore; tho work of a great established master would clearly proval ‘over the theories of the young English upstart, especially when that master was the one who had put the concept "but in circulation. Also, Le Cor bosiors earliar work already contained the basie architectural proposition on which Jaoul was based, 0 that his admires were prepared fort. This archi- {ectural prototype was his last previous house in tho western suburbs of Pars, the Petite Maizonde Week ‘ond (asthe ‘Couvre complste calls) in Boulogne- Sti-Seine, of 1995, Hove the archaiting tendency £0 Clear in J20u! is sready visible, inthe ‘propylacum’ Spanning tho path that leads to the pool in the Use of mass-conerete_vaulls and load: bearing walls the eontimentality about “materials friendly to Man", — visible brick, random masonry and wood — plus an enforced budgetary e2onomy that drove him back into proto-Brutalist morality ~ "les éléments be constiiction étant les seule moyens architec: toniques” CCortain post-war projects had developed this theme fon paper, increasing the emphasis on archaism and Primivism, notably the ‘itd. permanente! at la Sainte-Baume (whore the walls wera to be of ‘piss, the very influential ‘Roq et Rb! hotelproject for Cap Martin, syes* later in 1949, and mare specially, the project for the Fucter house on the Swiss side of Lake Constanca, which resumes the themes of 1905 on a domestic seale once more, but with pre- cisely the ai of ponderous ‘angat' (it looks like an sirraid shelter) that was required to turn ‘materiale The Jeoul houses, a2 bulk, ara less cowering and naurotic than this. Thoy present sizable two~ and three-storey elovations to outward view (whore tho cconsticted site permite such views) and each leva- tion presents a layered composition of vertical slabs ‘of coarsely-aid brickwork, separated by horizontal beams of plank-shuttored concrete. and windows, while the ond:-alls shov a cluster of exposed vault {ends (also in ‘béton brut) framing compositions of Wood and glass, The same repertoira of materials is exposed inthe intaiar-with the ation of oc ational plastered wall and the dark ting of the Underside of the vaulte (miscalled ‘Catalan’ by Le Corbusier). The iner face of the nfl of the vault fonds reveals a composition of shelving and cup bboatds among the glazing, as part of Le Corbusier's aesthetic of the ‘fourth wall, and this led James String to observe that this contrivance was *=y!p- tomatic of Le Corbusier's recantaitude to surface depth. Windows ara no longer to bo looked through but looked at, the aye finding interest in every part of tha surface impasto.,.” The use of the painterly term ‘impaste' in thie context i tolling: elsewhere Sing observes that the ‘wall is considered as surface and not as a pattern", and ik was at this timo that English entice were discovering that tho Brutalet sculpture of Paolozzi was “an ait of sur. face, not of mass! Brulalsm, as @ going syle, proved to be largely a matter of surfaces derived from Jacu, in association with certain standard threo-dimensional devices ta- en from the same source ~ "atthe extemal con- the point of these vaults, bird-nesting boxes are formed, and occasionally concrete ralswater-hoads project... (Sting) — and a few others, notably {atgoyles dorived from the chapel at Ronchamp andLo Corbsors an house, nd exposed walng ao deed trom Indian wot ie nie use at Ahmedabad y Brae ts aan Soro th isu eae alt ee to the fact that I aplies simultaneously acc a and an atfront to, coe it ea use: tl this, too, the fact was. ar cate ce, since departures from tho traditional sc elgcal mye of Node eaten ‘cusable in India (or raat Seunties the Engl whee coloaater eae te cael he od hose itn ha ase Equally, Stirling Pi ‘of Twentieth bandonment of th itocturewore ex for Indians ‘Algor 1 and many othe the Jaoul houses were not tern of alicia and patent a poe sepa wi ae nd drm Movener Ut topian and tho progress the grase that Sou pga oeMen West gr Th cab adc the accuntgn the ‘Unite at the seat pe Sent the oa S700 with its car. cto urban housing ratilen ye an jects an the daou aif hovers the suburb (and to toler ‘hat many of tho Te wonder i ols aster has os phe rn vincingy argue you discov ow volume of the ‘Qeuvre complete he 0. you bse that Corb has already had the best ides st thought up ° Bat here woe further multiple vatoncies tan the doout image: Ineo as the manne a rejection ofthe routine categories ot P thinking ert From th this Syrpathti to men half Le Corbusie' lost patience with their ‘bien-pensant but ee ive elders. Not only wore the ‘gros beter amit triques apparentos’ an affront 10 the POP at that Modern Architecture "marchos i086 Oo of tedinology, but thoy were 30 4," hie Confidence’ the Machine Aesthetic Architecture of the thiros", (SUS EO eae This too was extremely sympathetic © fy who ware fer too sophisticated eT lieve thatthe white macino-aeatetc ‘any way inherent in the technical oF bee sitios ofthe buiiing situation OF thittes. They knew it had been a PP, ypepie Aransfrred team post Cubist painting oor sre of fashion, and to this disenchanted ty bt the Jaoul houses had the ring of brutal PA ace 1 the state of artitectre in that 1 op san gine of et ingot was that, withthe origins & 8 fod youre thei protective myths, the disendier"e pion of were free to build cynically for hour, and not forthe future 62 Flat st Ham Common, London 1A degree of dexterity with tho niceties of syle Is fot necessary a cisadvantage for an architect. I fe consciously works to 8 progtamme that call for {he ideal solution fr a particular time and a pavticu- lar place, he ean harcly expect to apply asingl Fixed tive for avery building, Infinding the correct image! Feil have to come to some conscious decisions Mout the ‘Styl for tha Job’ — and this is a phrase that belongs to the partnarhip of James Stirling hd James Gowan more than to any other design Sif (oven Eore Saarinen’) in the recent history of architecture sueitte syle forthe job! was thelr, "The New Bru item was not They repudiated it both in spoken find printed statements, largely on the practical grounds that it was not good public relations ~ @ sro iko Brutliom, they fl, Fightened off poten Wits ae acily as It eld most English cris, ei tend to be both equeanish and hypersentitve wee snorda. But ths led to diicutes: Stirling's ares the man who introduced aout tothe Enalish wo ting world inked fis name closely to what was, Teri tno canonical Btls building, and when, «the Sting and Gowan fla at Ham ectain obvious afeitias that Yo Common wore completed Commer ad it aimost impossible fr ries and 1 ets avoid calling thom Bras Agsinat Nistor wakes, the subsoquent usage of the denon these fat almost a8 canonically Brutal ae Jaoul ise Bre pout sin te meaning of the word The rie affect of edging some other bul pa ae Hho Bait canon. Whon the ‘Architect ing t pbiahed tho Ham Common fats i ral Review Pir thom (hoogh without sing the word She ces nono bythe Sithsons, By Bria i yatnerahip around Willam Howell and oe een and by Sting and Gowan themsel: Staley ht with justice have gone onto include Sayer by John Voelker, ll rpresenting 2a org ofarcitectral quality In English sau design al iuoneed in varying degrees comet arnt, the Modul, Maeeles, te, ard (2 ae of belo classed a8 ‘Brutal’ without at a Sralnce to tho tor. All were also bul doa nie epertire of banal matail, chilly time race bik, nt onl ot of sympathy oe an of materiis ‘os found’ but also under {or he aon of a grinding economic necessity toe coy but the most banal materials une a aor mall hovse-buding. It was not only twnkab eal proforonce that made thoes young Peed to the eas ofthe tution arcs ism was te price of their survive. 3 tre (ea Gowan’ conapiuous use of concrete Ste eemon atome, ih part a last, from the at Ha Gro Tob was big enough to euppert the se Ses tory mater, Against hie unwonted tee: seine let be et the ‘eae! ofthe ste, 0 ri spree "culousl long and narrow (i was the back garden of fn old mansion called Langham House) thatthe nly way to accommodate the lapaly permissible tnd cconomicaly desirable maximum number of partments (0) while respecting the legal sights of Sujining land-owners to daylight and privacy, aa {o organise them intros datacod blocks ~ a large ‘one of thes storey, and two amaler ones of two storeys with ential plane, excopt thet thoy 76 teversed lot and right-handed, Al the have brick bearing wall otructires (of ‘alulted brickwork ‘ently reduced tthe minimum section capable of aryng the load) and concrete far siabeIn spite Of the fact that these slabs are fino vate, and the planing Is very diferent, th kanes to oul io etiking, The most profound dference x too subtle to regatr In many potographe ~ Is that Ham Common ie neat whore Joule casual aun 4idy, The biidwork Ts caret, the exposed shutlor- Battered conerate ia much less serve than Lo orusiers and brice and concrete are nat allow. ec to run mossy together (aw et Jul But fmly SeparatodBy a thn cessed dot The dropped or imertec-L window which makes one or two modest appearances at Teou, hee be: Comes a major theme, even being bent around cor fers with mannerat son (he prosnce of cp wi dome unde the edge af the rsa, leaving them “nsupperted for considerable lngihe and concen: trating the loads on narow pare of bie wold be nthinkable without a fullreteultod ucts). Projecting bore, fr vention, and waterepovt, {ake up a daoul theme ntrnaly the feplaces be come free-standing selpureseorso-elng pore o brik carving eantlvered concrete sabe ~ 8 Compact summary of the main themes of the eX terior and of the Ingeniy ws whch a fow hint ftom tho Maina lepul have been expanded at Hom Common int complete rcv and exible il. But Jooul isnot the only Ingadient of the ste Stiting always insisted that Hf there was inlunce from anywhere, there was another source besides Lo Corben and tat ase Stil At fiat sight there may seam to be no connection batween Ham Commons coarse naval surfaces and tho smooth bsnl planes of, say, Ritol's Sever house, ‘ord hove bony sectone and squared shove 8 appoar fo ome much othe hoveings spl Penetrations of neo Past aesthetic. Yet inthe {wocrovey bloske wih their simon tll glared endo, one can appaciale the foo sabe a6 planes in pace, and tho use af he stp window under the slnbeon tho side elevations gives degree of eval vdopendence to horizontal and verte! plan wile he handing of he woodort at the comers the windowe'efen comes vary close 10 Ri ot i iy close to Rie But itis Inthe entanceobbies ofthese smaler loca tht he pot ntovenian of eet Aci aesthetic fo most apparent. Electivay these lobbies re glared Ike containing the stairs and Joining the tres eparmestson each fos. The gas ft sidewalls are comma fom Roo ronal bbecause there is no intermediato slab at first-floor level, and instead of a floor there is a bridge, hung well inside the glass walls, connocting tho thro fentrance-doors to the top of the stair. Thus, the ‘spatial effect of arriving on this bridge-landing from the stairs is not that of entering a closed space-box fon a higher level, but of being raised midway up in 8 continuous space, Nothing comparable happensin ‘Jaoul, nor is itever common in Le Corbusier's work. But something ike it had happened before in British Brutaliam-the elevated walkways connecting theclf {erent blocks of the Smitheon's Sheffield project—and ‘was o appear again in Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith's gi- | antic Park Hill apartments in Shetfield, the bigges | Brotalist building ever completed. The U-seetion pe- “destrian bridge within a building complex is one of the few Brotalist thumb-prints that ls not directly derived from Le Corbusier, yat survived creatively | Into the period when Corbusian idioms dominated the public idea of Brutalism. For this reason itis an important telltale which facilitates discrimination botwoon Brutalism as a creative style and mere imix \tation of Le Corbusier. Az Stirling and Gowan's lat work shows, they were far from being disciples of tho Master, and the use of the ‘topological bridges and de Stil spatial aesthetics at Ham Common gave ‘atice that, for them, the idiom of ‘briques appar fentes! and ‘gros béton armé’ was to be exploited, ‘not slavishly imitated. 63 The Brutalist style Ham Common focussed a good des! of attention on Stiring and Gowen, outside Britain ac wall as within, and led to some retrospective speculation about theie possible role at dosignere of buildings that had appeared over the signatures of various wel elablished offices in which thoy had worked as as Slants, For Instance, a workshop end scone-paint- jing building forthe ‘Old Vie! theatre in South Lon- don was published in the magazines just aftor Ham ‘Common, and the architects were Lyons, Israel and Elis, fr whom both Stirling and Gowan had worked during tha months immediately preceding the set. {ing up of thei independent practice. The syle-of the bulking was undouttedly Brutalist—as the term ‘vas then understood, not only in is frank exposure fits materials, but also in the way that the pecule fartge of the internal section (the need for a very igh paint shop anda tall, narow slot through which Seenery could be taken arose tho road to the theatre) were allowed to dictate tho extemal ap- pearance, rather than being concealed by a tidy Exlomal box in the manner previously in vogue. In spite ofthis, neither String nor Gowan was in- \olved in the desiga procoss, which appears to have bon as follows (as far aa it can be reconstructed) the basie funcional solution was proposed by the middle partnor Lawrence Israel, was converted to 8 ocognicable architectural ‘part by the third partner, ‘Tom eli, and worked out in final dotall by two a8- {Falante, Alan Colquhoun ard John Miller (wh later followed the Stirling and Gowan example and went into independent partnerehip togethor). The process {worth examining laaolseriginal functional break: down would have established tho basic topological felationships between volume and volume; Eli's part would be a work of some architectural eophist- Eetion (he was held in high esteem by al the young- Gr architects who passed through the firm, for his frchtoctural erudition a6 much as his ability as a Gosigner; and that sophistication would probably be imatered by that ofthe final detailing, for Colquboun's Crodiion was (and is) the match of anybody's. All through the fies he was one of tho guardians fof the intellectual conseionce of his generation of Londen architect, Indeed, one of the mast notable tspects of the work of Lyons, leracl and Ellis Tivoughout this peviod was, quite simpy, that Ite ‘avaity was high enough, andthe offico organisation flexible enough, forthe partnership to attract, and hald fist-class talent as assistants In thie, ft exempliies the processes, motivations, ‘and organisational methods by which Brutaism in Bitin was tamed fiom a violent revolutionary out burst toa fashionable vernacular, Wherever an esta blished office can be found ‘converting’ to Brutal ism, the prosenco of new assistants, fash from the schools (whore they probably studied under Smith- 0m oF String) and in touch with world events in achitecture, ean usually be taken for granted. So ean an office organisation eufciently relaxed, and partners suificiently sympathetic, to give them the ‘opportunity for creative work. So can the fact that [the eontrlling partners had recognised in Grutalism, ‘once called the warchoute aesthetic’ a style eco- | nomicallyauited to the architectural raquirements of an econmy-minded eociety. ‘On some sich basis as this rests the efflorescence (Of rutlism a2 @ commercial vernacular in Britain in tho tix or soven yoars on cithor sido of 1860, b ginning, roughly, with the control-tower of Gatwick Airport (Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall, 1957) and running on to # sort of apatheasis in 1963-64 in ouch ‘works ae the externally flamboyant but intorally ‘conventional Eros Hove office-biock in South Lon tdon (Owen Lider, 1969), Churchill College, Cam- bridge (where itis married to traditional picturesque planning concepts), 4 muchmadified competition ‘winning design by Richard Sheppard, Robson and Partners (1964), or the first quadranglo of Sussex University, in which Sir Basil Spence’s office at> tempted 0 inflate the vaulted idiom of Jaoul to monumental proportions (186269). During the same period, the variety of architectural ‘expression possible within he nominallyBrutalistean= fn can be toon, for example, in tho intorior concrete ‘Work ofthe Hille showsoome in London (1968) where Peter Moro handles shotterspattems and exposed boltheads “tla Kahin’ with euch doliescy that i = ‘semble wall-paper, or in the penthouse-structure ‘of Donys Lascun's slightly earlier block of fats in St Jamoe's Place, where shutter-patterned concrete 142) to the level ofa fine certainly Becoming ‘une ‘an iciom, a vernacular style; an acs~ srough to express a variety of archi- ‘ectural moods, even ithad lost some of the moral Hervour that had illuminated its eavlier pretensions tobe an athe. In tho same period, other trends loosely called Bru {alist can be 2een coming t fruition. The youngerar- chitocta at the LCC hat their revenge forthe ideolo~ ‘ical dificulties of the pre-Kroschev regime, andthe Fitias closed with an architectural tiumph for their | viewpoint. The second phase of the Roehamaton scenery wast si a ae piricit design methods, and the slab blocks over | looking the sloping lawn which is the heart of the dovelopment unequivecaly reveal the Corbusian ‘convictions of their designers. Very much like Ham ‘Common, thay mark @ euctal stage in the evolution fof a general-purpose idiom from one af Le Cor busior’s special eases, but whereas an equal sub jection to. a brick-bulding statue-quo unites Ham Common and Jaoul, the greater technical and sco- nomic resources af the LCC enabled the designer ‘of Alton West to go ferward from the propositions inherent in the ‘Unite at Marseilles By this time, the technical resources of the LCC ‘ware considerably greater than thoco available on the ‘chanter’ at Marseilles, more sophisticated and ‘more precisa, with the curious result that the ex- tensive use of precast cladding elements gives an air ofthat preeccupation with repetitive rectangular ‘seomety that Pevener had Identified as peculiarlyEnoch Anglicised the coarse, swagaesing, atcy- Sematos fms of Warsi, bacome a forma Sea Sopat nth i ans of Roshameton. To eCtate some thr LEG variants 0 the ferme uch Ee ilseks at Setham Ras) have less spily Secure end ave move of ho oagger ofthe Srgia, and come of the smal Bioste at Roe fampton which opt more genuine “béton brut ound the aaveanes atthe ens (expecially the tera of shops) ase seem to hve pioresred the ho ofs Corbin concopt that had thet, Tainan paper = to narow path stepped er ‘Ripe pesca hough terrace of deep-plan tame het shops wth apartments over and Dace Sard behing) hich ak appeared In the Stine Baume nd Rod ot Ro! projet ‘Tho cra-allo and sisesne of those Blocks alo tears itn family relationship to the end-walls tnd stars ofthe fetdgial blots ofthe Portales Sigboutbod unt at euita Norma, outside San- Tiago, Cie: seems etromely uty that there is any deat comocton between tha two schemes, or tat th aritocs (Beslan, Valdee, Castillo and Fuidobe) hed ony rast nequaitance wit the USC aciecs Bain wes Becoming 2 syle of vide aifsion fron is ogi sovoss, but those Sources fl haa ation aathory to stamp = fay on ithe onal like the etn of relationships ean- tote arabes Sometimes honever, the connections are clea Ande Wogensdyshoure fora ows secuption amyl Cheneusee in Fans, ie srikingly Cor brstan, and ile wo oom most of tho Enash Govvatves~ and for he vary good reason thal he sce homme do chege in Le Corusiors office Mike afer rom the Engl work is forex Bplay these of rferancet to th chapel at Rondon (ave in Ealsh Britian of domestic teal) nthe frm the bor haut tgrovrd evel Sdn the sector on hero ain tho use of {ee random windows Ree and hee, But ito much ‘ofthe English wort lis on Modlor dimensions, ‘males enensve ube of voriealshuttr-patters and ‘Segoyls (though there are the tapering Ronchamp ‘ype agar, Pats of he house, however, are clad in arcing acedevcl the hos eahastho Pavan Sane) and terete tor devices, ich {2 he projecnrtoe bse which rosa Her worl Wogerahy, och na nt in ‘sip th wor ag done nthe soe whl the house was bing designed ha viw of Le Corbusier ha eter net cep fo oven 8 touch of ooking ‘amlar outs and histor! spprseh can be min Sraom to Swe sch), ot ony in ctv onal ine Daf etl Holy hours 4 Campion dtl, bts throvohout the wok of cdg design tune a‘Acor 8 = Ents San Gar Rat Hater, Hoa Fate Thefeem These beara! tte be later, but their minor works ean conveniently BSF, Tauition Their contribution to that tradivon Oy Imaniera’, which they employed with great int Fei eer are on oacen! Noave Brown could say of their ‘eclectic predion ou? Faith +... The eclosticiam of Atelior 5 or any othe ‘stn similar titude i something of an act Teatiome that if the foture course ia mot cle8f 1 progress at al it je necessary to adopt the suce Fur forms and idioma of the Immediate past, 274 thus sold working endlessly over tho same OUT, Or dogenerating into a chaotic individuals thorofore wige to choose the Bost source...” and for Atelier 8 the best source was unoaulvOGaty [Corbusier But they cannot be accused of tai lagariam, and this #2 due largely to their dept! Fistereal perspective on the master. New oom lone of given forms alter their meanings and “055, fnew meanings are koowingly exploited. As AIS Ross put it™ of the great eee ale “Alea, forms derived from typical usages French Master, eventually become sta new footing and with © new mesning ferent context fed by their depth of historical perce “he pat i yanings ca tion mctablshing there tansformod mo be'becnaven in quite aval worke, such a the HOUSE SPEER Somgletod in 1950. The exterior with HS flank shattered exposed concrete is Recher" Pegoxiee and random window, Ne root Hah Sit Soom the upper works of the parlament House 1 Chandigarh ail thee brat Corby’ of to HA@S: tur n't’ eowione the howe belongs to another epoch entiey. Ae a habitable volume ie effective Ty bor on lt, «solution virtually abandoned BY the master attr the war, win that volome Ht of farsthe atudiorhouee section double height I¥iNG- {Som witha beleony nerors tho back and, although torsion ofthat section wore used by Le Corbus In'moat of tho “unter, 1 appears hore in some: {hing more lke the format, seale and domestic Tinton for which it wes st dovined in the eat (wens. At the ether ond of the block is & SUN toom on the second floor, recessed back from the Siable tame st tal pot and everlooking & Pro= Jncting terrace with sli to ground level ~ @ loa Feetatoment of the Nerasses whic gave the name Tm tos ile Stes otter er testo ue aslo oeteeee ea Gere aloo recalle aighty endian protects ces, ee cy ihia perecrsone ene oe eee pa etre errs age i pepe eee ae NCE st cone Aas elas eae *ie Wieser ar cas 718 | 7 Hard cases: the Brick Bratalists ‘Around the succession of buildings which belong to the main stream of Butalist development, entice Ihave grouped others which, forthe purposes of ar- ‘gument, might be regarded as Brutalit, or might fot I is dificult, to know where t2 place Svorro Fehn and Geir Grung's museum at Mathaugen in Norway. Both men are members of that network of nth connections with Norway whichis sometimes humorously ealled the “Arete Circo’, and Grung, like Norway’ eenior member of IAM, Ame Korsmo, twas present at the Otter congress in 159. The Imucour might well ba regarded s= ax atfompt to find an ideal solution fora ificlt site, and it sports ‘certain amount of "brat concrete on ils exposed foot slabe, But in a word of architecture as small ‘that in Norway, every major building is 80 much ‘Of an unique occasion that its dangerous to try to Tink it to any particular movemot Many ofthese hard eaoes aa churches ~ obviously confluence between a puritan acsthtic and a puritan ethic might be looked for in the Protestant Connection, but not all the Ukoy eandiates have a LLitheran or Calvinist background. Fign! and Pltin's ‘Sania Mara del Poves in Milan prompted Kidder Smith to observe that it oxtvior "suggest move = warehouse than a church” and he described the in terior as inear-bautal but thore is a good deal of justice in he proposition that this isin the estab- Tishod tation compare the prasont state of many Renaissance churches) of not bothering with fishes fand. cladding ence the shell of the church was weathertght In tho Protestant connection, however, ack of ebvious nie’ ie more likely to be delib- trate. Tho bare concrete block-work and procast beams of van don Brosck and Bakoma’s church at Nagle in Holland seme to foprosont the same thie and aesthetic az is s9en in the bare white- ‘rashed interiors of other tomples of the 'Hervormd Ker; the sheltr wall that wraps around the adjoin ing courtyard is an altempt to create the necessary shelter required for thet particular place (a bleak, hewlyveelaimed polda) Bt tho hardest case, certainly tho most enigmatic, is Sigurd Leworents's Markuskyrka outside Stock holm, Its a building that would greatly enrich the Brutalisteanon sft could safely bo included within it, but how convincing ould such a classification be made? It js not the revolutionary outburst of a di idont young architest, nr ie # @ work of opporun= jm on the pet of a middle-aged and successful architect adapting toa change of fashion, Lewerentz i ofan age with Le Corbusier (he was bom in 185) tnd the church seems to be the unexpected product ff a long process of architectural maturity. It com binos challow vauting, plane and curved walls ~ all in resoltely coarse. brickwork that makes Jaou! look eather inhibited ~ witha concept of plan, space and geometry that has nothing in common with any ‘of tha Bratalist buildings that use brik in any relat fed manne. In some ways tis is very ‘ther’ archi tecture: Leworens's command of sreitectural forme 18 is secure and explicit, and yet the building has @ ‘genuine informality, a relaxed indilference to such Concepts a ‘rectangle’ that goes far beyond tho forme of sy, the Smithson Shefield scheme. How fever casual the grouping of the buildings in that project may have been, tho individual parts still fanswor to. fow regular geometries! archelypos, tiheress the plan of the Markushyrka ia stuciedly inresolte about euch archetypes, especially at the altar end, where the wals vary in thicenessand curve way in various directions — echoing the formal in- difference of those mediaeval eatle builders whom Lots Kahn so much admires but shows no deaira to imitate. When one observes how this ‘other’ arch tecture fa the work of a man firmly grounded in the Scandinavian traditions of nao-Classieal order and picturesque sensibility, one cannot help wondering If Hane Asplund, in caning the term ‘Neo-Brutlist vas not identifying a trend that might have emera- td anyhow, without any assistance at all from Le CCorbutier, Louis Kahn or the Bish But, inthe end, the Markuskyrka remsins an enigma; it poses question but illuminates no possible answer, least of all about the other Brick Brutalists ‘This sub-category or marginal grouping of doubtful Brutaliss, to which Stirling and Gowan might be taken to belong atthe Gime of Harm Common, is not ppothaps to be taken too seriously, specially since the use of brick is nat the main factor thoy have in ‘commen, merely the most obvious. As between Ham Common, Oswald Mathias Ungors's house in Co- lagne, and the extension to the architecture schoo! at Cambridge University, there ie no agreement a8 to external frm, detailing or spatial aesthetics, What they have ia common is great erudition and sophie: tication, worn witha floutah, about the recent his tory of Modem Architecture, ‘With Ungore, his sophisticated awarcnoss sooms at times more like an inflamed sensibility. It spills out of him in conversation, it gives him a response to ‘modem masterpieces thet can be personal and vio: Tent, yot his pat inthe organisation ofthe ‘Glaseme Keto’ exhibition in 1965 shows that it can be put to Aisciplined and scholarly ends, Hie house is @ m- nifesto-building, and although it could have been built at no other time than the late fifties (the en- Closed gatden courts in particular seem to belong t© that time) it evokes remarkable echoes of the archi- tecture of thirty years before. For a star, its toca tion, atthe end of a street and attached to avhouse in an earlier style, recalls the siting of Rietveld ‘SchrBder house in Utrecht, though its detailed afehi- tectural idiom has less eonnoction with de Stil than with more eautious Duteh derivatives from the work ‘oF Frank Lloyd Wright. In any ease, its main affinities tie it more directly to Germany, to Erich Mendol sohn’s early houses in Berlin (eg the Stem house), to Hugo Miing’s farm at Garkau, and even, in the way the garden structures relate the main mass of the house to the sireet, to gome of the terracing ‘around the houses of the Weiasenhofsiodlung. It is ‘ery striking that in generation that was well aware of the innovations offered by Haring at Garkau (itwas one of the Smithee’ favourite mages) Ur. ore shoud be the only ruta of any or fo ako fy hind of srcitetualroference to that much nied source For ronson sch aa thee, Unger’s house i hapa the ony busing of aul in Norther Europe that ean be compared to the work ofthe Neolib favans in tly, though any such comparison would ince his erudition invled ith hisoral interests tan ie the come frie work ofthe gis Brick Brita, een vlige Scoot who. reset he eon niles ng of he over monn Enand Neverhelas, the Cambridge movement besine ‘ihe manfosts ulin snot contomporay wth ingens aura Tho oresan ho eco of arc {ecu wos denned by Ales Hay and Gale A St Wison (he sore Sandy ison mentioned in 1 ayn et sand nto eave smal bul were poured mot ef the naar sepations ot The Wise hoon generation; it on ofthe moe elec deg over fo bo peked in an Sonyous aang bi oe. ‘ot oven hoon of at box bys come of Teac eoncrm that rn tough the whole Use fore hobhe ofthe to sory ae Seuld yy he eponed concrete edge tthe oor Sr root as ave elie byte Geld Section ite tech undero the Mle, of couse) and toto propria! baseton rns tough {hs lane ofthe windows fo on another and to s lcudos on he eta and pontrtes te e- ogc of eon eset designed deal of the Toren Many ofthese tral eta ive instar formation abou th interests and pro Aiacton ete sttects That levate uit ‘this cores the proce for the siges sed in Ieties, recal ae bu for tho Elomertarist ‘Supt fa saerach or» Vantongron tt ‘anos concate sall eslrg the forms of te ice tte fhe Seria n Chandigarh, and itreahed bya abl adorn te meer of Niedine Aetot cf the renion But the guna of Imcecua ceseveterenes als embraces th oss Ghriour mucin estates ofthe 1505, nd the Tec tthe reading dena hmsl coonted wha balty of cons with wich tat the atralond eel igi #8 communist with the pein, atte epore sd thi a undamertaly ‘imple and workers bling certsnng reson ‘Sloan yecosry aesenmoaaton fh enn ef acitetre= ecto a cle rome onthe Sper foo tation ame and = BK armen. ‘com onthe for below ts means of aie ‘proston ae ew'= i, concete and wood = bathe completely demicte the visual sesh nd the wees woe stone ple fo ensure tk {oy aldo wih throat tat the wale ae uncom ho of being aves ort Cia cate nu nd or ane oe monly thick (13° inches) forthe 63 {Safer the right kind of fo 2" on both siden, All those elements land bisthmarks of building are excioded the bolt-holes for the stairway shutterins Seinen words, the ele end ott tas ete stage ne ge ae {re lens succeasiul and the Cambridae So voy Leste Martin, it makes a very sifferent OPT Con, ‘cour, in the English collegiate tradition 1" 10 gg ‘overt separ fom fat tater eg rooms are stepped back floor bY foot wine cou in front; also, the short range of rooms OF Ty 4g, Sid tamed to foce cured onda 2h tnd the eau or one 2) MO Oday (evel are hot ervice rooms and a an0ck BAY UNE HW by a large sbytight the form of URCETES Pratl ASP en cea Sets the wan oh a Fite inthe twontieth contury, only to madly f'n We inte ofr corcenitoonma Tel rappers rom some ponte fat fo almost carved from a solid mess of brick, SnoUSH Close oxamination reveals. some very crafiemanty Pin ce cdot Seize Marat ecg owes af meme ero! US SPSS Ce he Cena coach {orm an amphitheatre around it, From the seat) one Shen the aut by mounting « ond HGH of Itza, for example) and is then confronted with the ‘one from the elements 20 much as offer one to the, Sd overt hat Tome the Ht and Beton part ot the Churchill dovelopment, is doubt i hart ‘Court, in the end, relat doubttul if He Ana Gialtaons Wes ee coer eee toriano Vigand in Milan. turn, of Vite to anything and a not eonsciouel rate programme, with the baffling 8.1 Istituto Merchiondl, Milan Vigan ltiute Marchiondl was one of the maor itpiee of European avhiecture inthe late Roe [A ate when most allan actos seemed fe be Sinking into comfortable compromize with th pole ‘eciclrteal regime, to submission to the epec- Istre who had to mani sulla cay and thus controle the progress of building, Vignn® produced this "Kabiat for an organisation whose programme of Peyeolgia oabittion win oll he romal Gharc-contolled pattern of charity at atime when {he sczoptance of compromise mas boing expe od in tho sontimonial fomatiem of Neciborty, he offered a tough mindad and unsentimental bung {wits as. grvely offenced tenderminded sont Mantaite fom all over the world); and at atime when great historical cusuary wns boing excreted to lly Neary betrayal of th promive ofthe Malan Rationaliat ovement, Vigan. peramptory ‘condemned them al by employing an architectural idiom tat recalled the fervour sd dacpline ofthe pracwararchitetors sional ‘Fis point about the buldingle parentage f© impor tant, Because ht londe substance to te claim to be Buta but most frsign erties have everlookod ian eran Renato Peso, inhi presentation ofthe Isktats Marchi in riteture™, keeps the Nstoncalrtoronces unspecific end generalized: taliem, according to the English ertie Reynor | Banham, slonifion, in rehitocture 1 tho bullaing ae an unified visual Image, clear and momorab 2 clear exhibition of te structure, 8 a high valuation of raw untreated materials This alternative definition is adduced from L'Espre £0),2 March 1968; clean virgin surfaces; heavily cor rogated valumas, but of prismatic eimplcity; services ‘exposed fo view: zonee of violent colour, Brutaliam Ie thus a taste for solt-eutficiont architectonic ob- Jects, aggressively placed in their surroundings; i ia fan energetic affirmation ofthe atructre, te evenge fof mass and plasticity over the avethetics of mateh~ Boxes and cardboard, t aime to profit (onthe Basis of historical study but outside academe categeris) From the lessons of Modern Architecture tripped of all literary excusoe, Ite « method of working, cor {ainly nat a racine far pry. And fon the one hand Polomical power now saome reduced (especially outside its native England) it trong moral basis, on the other hand, disils the most siaifiant essence from the naw long history of Modern Architecture, “This moral chectiy, there tigorous standards of Conduct in face of the word: this courage and re~ ‘olutionary spirit could lead back to a {ter sense of the relation between archifecture and society, urronily abscured by nostalgic revival.” ‘Though Pedio, making 8 pelemical defence, names to histoieal soute Ixpotters have alwaysregarded the building as fair ame, and have ucually classed it with attompta to revive the architecturo of ‘do Siijt Thus Nikolaus Pevener in his famous lee- ture on Neo-Historicism’ after discussing the re- vival ade Sti in funiture design, went on to say in architecture, neo-de-Sti eI think, just as tke ing, llustration 19 ie a building at Harlem by the Duteh architect J. W. &. Buys, and illustration 20, ‘shows not another view ofthe same building but the Marchiond: Insite in bilan, by Vitloriana Vigand of 957." But this wae not how Vigand saw the situation; he admitted, oven claimed influence from Giuseppe “Tetragni above allathers, and the buildings abound in details, especially window detail, that rocall Ter ‘agni fairy dreetly Beyond this, the manner invthich the main forms and exposed structure of the build ings transcond the expressive language of the Ra- tionalist movement, has less to do with ‘de St" than with the manifetspatisl ambitions cevealed by Terragne proceeupation with exposed framer, open ‘nd bridges penetrating volumes from side t© lis as if Vigand were going forward from ‘where Terragni left off, while thowe of Terragni's ge neration who survived were going backwards {rom that point. Ione were to extrapolate Terragni's ar- hitesture forward from his last pre-war projects into a post-war sitation that contained the Jzoul houses and the work of Kenzo Tange, one might oll produce something like Marchiongi Yet one may suspect that what Vigand really sought from Terragni and the history of the Rationalct ‘movement was less a formal aesthetic than a func- tional ethic. fn 1968, ona were to st out to design {school in Ital there were very few native examples for study that were not an affront to human dignity and the decent aspirations of pedagogy, and of thase few, two were of outstanding intrest — the tuberculosis colony at Legnano by BEPR, Gianluigi Banfi Lodovico B. Belgojoeo, Enrico PereseuttEr- esto N. Rogers (1888) and Teragn’'a Asilo Sant Elia in Como, completed a yoar earlier. The Alo ould have contributed formal usages (such ae {raimes standing cles ofthe volumes they suppor) but more than that it would suggest a severe and ‘Calm ecucatonal ambioneo, and this would be to inforced by the example of Legnano, which stood, im some ways, closer to Vigand’s own problem of 2 uratve institute Functionally, the Istituto Marehiondl isa residential Fehabilitstive school for psychalogislly cisturbed bboy, run on firm and progressive lines, end former ly accommodated in Unsuitable and run-down pro mises in Central Milan. There has boon much specs lation about the motives behing the sovero aosthotic of Vigané's design, which in many dotailad ways ssembles Hunstanton redone with a eoncrets frame, {even though the bulk form ie more complex: how far 128 does it derive trom the peychintrie programme? There were many at one time who, observing is differences from Vigand's other works, dismissed i fs 'a more styling jab’, architecto-paychiatie fancy Gress. This was 2 plausible enough argument to put forward around 1960 when Milan was the world contra for facile fashion-mongering, but a eacond Visit and mature reflection will not support the idea, The building convinces, and is sll of a piocoy and this is tha more romarkable in view of some of the vary extreme devices employed by Vigand. For in Stance, each dormitory-room fe crossed by a typleah brutalct pedestrian bridge half way up, connecting the lavatory, which ia also at the higher level, toa baleony containing clothes cupboards at the other ‘end of the dormitory ~ the cupboards being double- fided, with sta access tothe far side from a corridor nat normally used by the boys. By this esperato-sooming shift, Vigano ie able to offer the legally required erisimum volume. per bey will making the floor area of the room ridiculously and inhumanly large, and then explost the double height ta give boys and staff separate accees to the cup. boards, Doubtless there wauld be simpler method of achieving these results, but there seem to be ne particular functional or structural advantages that Would result, and there may be some paychiatric Advantages in making a trip to the lavatory oF cupe boards something of a public eeremany ifthe dorm tory lo not dircclly supervised by one of tha ataif In any ¢ase, this device has the conviction of ox. Iemiam that informe the rest of the design, Even ff Vigan and his clients consciously decided on Bru talism ae the only style (they seem rather to have achieved this decision by mutual persuasion and ‘analysis of theie problom) it clearly was not ovt of ‘merely fashionable proferonce. It ia part ofthe real presence of tho building — handsome in sunlight, Intimidating in bad weather — and emphasiaes thet ‘maral chastity’ of which Pedio had written, On this score of a stornly moral building as part of a re- formative educational programma, iti interesting to ‘compare Marchiondi with Aldo van Eyck’ orphanage. School in Amsterdam, Hero le a building designed by, fn architect in far closer touch with the Smitheone, and the origins of Brutaliem than Vigand was, and ‘working with a ropertoire of materials that ~ a¢ eat Slogued in purely verbal description — sounds the same as Vigand's: conerate, brick, waod, glass, Some of the interior spaces, auch as the common room at the Istituto Marchiondi and tha play-room for very smal children at the orphanage, aven look rathor alike in photographs. But the effect is very Uiffrent in reality: Marchiondi is stern, but the orphanage is very gentle, the final disproof that ex- posed brick and concrete are ‘inhuman’. Vigan! building, therefore, is the more Brutalist in the come ‘mon usage of the term, the puraly aesthetic, bitin terms ofthe ‘ethic’ of Brutalism, the two schools ara fon an even footing, both serious attompts at the fight human environment, or habitat, for'a particu. far human situation in place and time. What one cans not be certain about, however, is how Vigand hin 10 self would have regarded thi comparison of the two buildings in 1968 or 58. He had, aftr al, just per- formed the unique feat of consciously joining the Brutalit movement, and the feeling omorges from Conversation with him, that ha was joining a tough, Storm movement, And those who insat that Brutalism isan affalr of exposed eoncreto, rough: brickwork and a deliberate disregard forthe traditional aracos ‘of Modern Architecture would probably agree with him, and regard Marchiondi as the harbinger of the high period of eoncrete Brutalism: a harvest-season exemplifiad in three notable habitats completed at this time or a litle later, one in Switzerland, one in Japan, and one in Britain ‘ivappe Tera; Como (Way, Alo Sani. 801.2 Habitats: Halen, Herum, Shella Tho precccuaton with abit the otal ult ens Tooment that steors man and dec his move. tart cot te that comect ogeher | any direee ruta buings, and connect Bro {Siti with other progenive thinking (and action) | cule th tld of arcitecure. The presecupe: | fon wth the “naling of Ma | er yer, rom areal sono of soc ead — a teed for dena, a ned fr ater avaing bial thay soy wasn fe, proving, Bu taal te tat Beata In hat a rover oan tod to the pac ta be dominated by puroly visual images, purely spatial concepts. Weak on the me: ania! and communicative "Sed for 8 {uly efestva habitat Brtalem as amavement con Conated on tho domesteaion of = few basic re and aoval concep dorived from Le Cor ‘na from hat mythalogy of 2 Mediterranean vay of We! tht had grown vp under his influence, Shd_undor the infuanee of sch modern Wallan Fabitate se Quarons work at La Martlis. Thus, tho ‘work of Past Racolph hat most persistently receives the epithet ‘ritalat ie not hie At and Architectaro Balding at Yale with it arly coarse concrete surfaces, but hia marid-etudeet housing for the me university, of which bineel wrote™ “It should Lak ike vila, not ike housing though pats are reposted, they doit ook it Tradi= tional housing has wood repeated housing units, but TRdaesn' bore, We too must repeat but not bore. ‘Spacosin between the vite are mportat.- court yrds and eraser, pate and entrances” In the choke of image: ike a village in ts built orm, special mountain village), and is con- ‘cm with public spaces: courtyards end torracor, paths and enrance', tha habitat roveale all too | Seniyite origina a8 does the pled ambition to eato a erly bul sonee of community. But ‘arin and resicted ae the rango of basie con- ‘cepts may bait rmaing biter rth thatthe wor largo wae ot balding bettar habitats, more con ‘insing conmonten than Le, Corbusier had ence aged, ant romana the hit gary of the younger, lr more ual utalit that thy ocessonally c- [Whedon landed orpropose significant variations upon I. The tree major se "oe whch ave discussed here te therefore ranked inorder of thet degree of departure from Covbusien rtolypes,rathar than in chronological sequence ‘hough they are so nary contemporary that the quence is nat impart, Sielung Halon by Atl 6 standing on a wooded ise out foctaly ‘comploted in 1960-61. ts ret dapendence on the work of Le CCorbusos has paver eon i doubts tho plan ie jue one step away from the Permanent City f the ‘Sainte-Baume projet" (Neave Brown) and tat top was foward the same primitive archet¥P® 2° behind Paul Rudolph's housing, for Neave Steed tee described Halon ae" orderyandeomal@Sr, ain hi tm compote wi pina a sentechimney te toygeet soe aor BS ore intorcty proc, the nop ey ho Exine'Saume rings Aion 8 rather leet (2.0 Stag ot Bob project of 90, what was ov80Ty, Wythe most Bogut. sopect of oa &t Sp, Tay seapponr at lem aa in so. maty, OH cr'schomes he" stopped_ path sting, 4 Shel traced compeston on on oem Strang tiraugh costal puto wpeces #318 {he'iden of conpering those teracas out of *S07 atest narow-secton apartments witht 5 conmodation on more than one level, accord. Shot te land Le Corbusors orginal vison of such aha Son deenly ine with postwar conceit eet ten tne empl ie apie rogorerstor= Tilt tc and we esen by bi a8 «cone 3 Stator of muta rote cared on mall vcd sur, Hatem, bit for comiontaby aM ‘cures suburzenton (ho leave that ts stat had ‘uth tho nd ofthe fevaces, and maintain a pedest tn stile within the habitat) inevitably NOS, sophisticated aesthetic, derived. and #5221 Tad uy atte 8 thoi wove! coming em umerabeaiferet Corbusian sources, s0m@, Of thom auch a the briso-olelle from the UR 3 Marvuites ~ svemingly auito out of key, aad OU {ii wth de slag tag ofthe plan and 2920". However, subsoquont overgrowth by vegetation: lay grace the rook, has largoly ri primi; Sante-Baumo image. wast wa St fata rather aeltesoortvly clover rehieci 8 boon rodeced by tho obiteratve power of nals {fhe sats of¢ simple habitat, an naire Nl {euitage he mid-wentcth contry anual Besar stburd that was the image of Pro sive hati #00, ‘a ‘Cons Mayokava Harumi apariment locke Tho te unkey ever to sleeppeer Behind. oneenchiNs Nogottion. vi o0 ig, and te untovey site 280m Shute bsen permanently sipped ct natura fe! Ie rae erat wll shay sare blnty out et the woreda, 1958 stil soemato stale Europeahes Wheltond to reperd Kenzo Tange's Kuratitt (OWN which i Tour yoare younger asthe frst eal {rere in gror ton arms” pan. Tt worth ‘cmcmering therefore, thet Maekawa wes at 28 ie Teoge' master, tr representa 0 avec DK Sotwoonfapan ard Le Corbusier that may events tiy'prve more signlfeant than the Boterinown ey Baton though dunzo: Sakura In tom of Strat ewonlogy, the etign and constuction of Hutu occupa pevod inthe stony of Japan iSitoctare fst wae ch in gonericaly Bras © fevmerte Kiksabo’s raceleng Tonogays #PSrte eatovelapment orinstance, er that uno Ye open te Roa ot Rob” fora tho Ful ko Gite Sevlopment Teta, Oe and Mpoime O- tn thig context, the big Harum block looks eas start Ne eal ns eae eee SET paca Ha a elated aad Seas om ao tro obser te boro ln tis comeston Ficierasthch hou finetion a2 & eerie of linked courtyanie kere be structural pier and the noxt since scch tare level being reached by stale, The decision we oe ploy an external street deck wan spparanthy tie re cool hme en) hate Gund thelr ction poor SE iproseed by Noboru Kewazoe™: i techniealy, habitat On tt scoms to me however, that drying lapere are a sigh of lf and oneoy, andthe bulding Secsrtes sandoscript when adorned with them, theo erontee Iai elt Aopen henw shoul be se {0 withstand those manfectations of human ie weak bulding.” ea {speaking epeciically of Harum ‘stots suspended in the sr he goes op toobeore. Hore children can play games, or ride Wwieyclos as thay might do on the side-walk in other arcve Tess too the petty hoodlums of the surrounding catrets {can prow! al night, tothe disconsolence of the in, habitants .-. a building does not realy belong to the people unlosa it ie capable of absorbing the shadior sides of life clong with the more ploseant $Fo'be a tre bulling W mut melt nto tho history “This must be about the most permissive statoment About the use of hebitel ever made by @ member Of the Brutalist connection. It le doubtful i any European, lat slono any architect brought up in the ‘preventive’ morality of Bich eosial reform, could {Glerate even poty ime ne pat of the ‘oaliies of the situation: [But — and ths Is tho socond point ~ the permissive ‘nitude toward tho public spaces ie matched by a felated attitude to what gove on internally. Witkin the bare bookshelf of the concrete frame, Mayekawa inserts what are virtually Japanese houses ofthe tra: ditional type, to quote Kawazoe again ‘The larger spartmants af the Haru bling re sinks taitona yoann ln, we ho Srullor ones have the farmchouso Plan. people ‘ted the (adiiona standardeed) Rouses accord: ing to thet individual needs anthers nl Woubled Dy tho sameness The fact i that people are the Iastore of arcitectoro, and archtective mur pro- Wide them the necessary freedom” ‘The closing observation is infact, Kawazoe quoting Tange, though the ontimont recalls what the Smithons had sid about leaving man room to dap! he own habitat (coe section 43). Yet 90 Smithson echeme, no ‘Units! by Le Corbusier ni thor Halen nor Park Hil, Sheffield, is vo permis 2 to offer its inhabitant thelr accustomed domestic ronment all over again. For Harumi does not merely reproduce the traditional spaces and i+ mensions; as far a8 possible # works with traditio- nal tatami? mats in the living areas, the customary Blanked Hosring in kitchen, bathroom ete, sliding Sracna, sliding cupbosré-doors, oven_a sort of “tokonoinal-alcave in the living foom. It is, 20 t0 peak, te Smithsone! concopt af the ‘necessity for the traditional backyard, browaht indoors. ‘And what is 20 striking about Harumi is that th ‘made! exposition of an orginal Brotalist ethic ie fealized jn an orginal version of the Brutalist aes- thetic that any European Bratalist would have been happy to have conceived. building which expresses the material even more pasitively than Le Carausier, yet have (ee) @preci- fon and finesse reminiscent of Perea” ‘This Inst observation seems arguable, euice it to ny thatthe concrete i» massive, brut’ and handled Inhoroie shjle, The services that make the building work are carried with an equally Brutalst swagaer, ‘not only in the sansa that a latgo tank and ass lated pipecworka are exhibited on the roof with ut being clothed in some fanciful structure of tho sort that a Corbusien aesthetic commonly enjoins, but alo that a massive dctfloor-cum-structurl- Beam rune visibly through the block from end to fond at every alterate third floor to that occupied by a street deck That auch a structure, embracing 4uch « conception of habitat should bo erested at that timo, on the opposite side of the world to that In which to young architect from the English prov- inces had first enunciated the Brutalist creed, showed how far that ersed oxprossed an architeo: tural mood of the time, and it was to the work of {wo other young arenitect inthe English provinces that one has fo turn to find @ conception that is io ‘any way comparable with Harum: Park Hil, Shelfiald, was effectively designed by 2ck Lynn and Ivor Smith, under the direction of {EL Womorsoy, th ety architect, and it sume up al moat az many of the seciclogiee! intentions of the Younger architects a8 the. Cambridge Architecture choot extonsion dees oftheir inallctual interests tite huge aingle complex building occupying anc parly enclosing a cecognisable district of the ety — Eigenuinely anistying achievement in a generation that had big ambitions and had boon forced by cir. Cumstances to reelige them im penny packets. But this vert enterprsa le unilled and kept humanly com probontible by ahabitatdeviee that was dear tothe‘doa! of builtin communiy-sense of that gone tion —a ttost- dock sytem even more sophisteated nd mature thn Mayekawa's. Four twelve-foot wise Pdostian promenades thread through whole com: Blox joining te various exremiti; on the Upper Imoat tf possible to walk for ken minutes without retracing one's stops. In order to give tho greatest numberof apartments tho best orientation for ight and view, the block tivides thee times, ach o te ibe looping back on ital. The sveet-deck, keoping alway to the thadled side of the block therefore have frequently 4o penetrate fo the other sie ofthe limbs where they bend, thue resting the equivalent of streot commer. At the end of exch im, the dock opens out into a spall passa served by Hite and ta for vor. tical eirculation. At the thro points whore th block divides, however, a bridge leape actoss fom the Piazza and connects with the two branches of the "iea-dock beyond te gap, erating anather smal Buble space infront ofthe servic. on thal side tlso tie at these points where three diferent ox |tegores of vores creation mact the horizontal Girculation povided by the eeu-deci, here ne iy revealed ss pedostian bridges that tho 0 sence oParkHiliseen, This essential pattem of ciultion stems, a8 at Harumi from a conviction tat the ‘uo introure! of Le Corbusiors ‘Unité! would not sore. The ste deck emerged ess logial corective, and at the ‘same time posed the problem ct how people should ireulate through thelr habits, how fer erlation- were past of the vital environment of the At Siedlung Halen the steed path pass ‘hrough the canta square; t Haru the eivulation is series of minute public places, but at Shofild tho crulton space generates «varity of public areas, on the presopt of the Smithons" Golden Lane competition erty a¢ well as Lyon and Smith's “The Smithsons' Golden Lane project used a simi lar stest-accoss to ours, and made the frst moves towards their continuity by cresting street-corner junctions where refuse chutes would be located, Which they likened to the modern equivalent of tho village pump. Like the suspended streets of Harumi, Park Hille [stteet decks occur at every third floor and onto the ‘decks open the front doors ofall the apartments ‘Along the deck sel pass small treks fr deliveries, ‘mail and furniture-removale, but no faster wheeled trafic to menace the playing eildren or goesiping Adults ~ or, indeod the turbulent teenagers who oo- cessionally’ disturb the peace, for Park Hill ike Harumi; has melted nto the history of ite times and absorbed something of the shadier sda, But the apartments that are served by the strost decks aro Jess permissive, do not reconatiuot the provious domestic scene, and call upon the now inhabitants te adopt anew environment There were, in fat, fairly cogent sociological and ‘even criminological reasons for breaking up the existing lving-patterns of the area, which had bo- ome a notoriously blighted slum, This, indead, was the reason for rebuilding it, and this alr of eocial lrgency was one of the reasons why Jack Lynn and. wor Smith volunteered to design for this diffu site rathor than an eacior ono elaawhere in the ety, “Thus, if Park Hil ean in any way be regarded as an ideal zolution for this particular place at that part ular time, the ideal Is that of the English concep tion of s2cial justice, as exproseed through the | English system of local government But It difre from Halon or Harumi in more ways than this; the aesthetic ie ae diferent ae tho etic. Vory little indeed of the external detailing mak oven token acknowledgement to Le Corbusl ‘0 any other known master, oF even to what is normally fegarded ar architectural detailing. The frame baldly expressed, emphasising only the cellar na- ture ofthe contents.\Thoinfling of the frame is in imple brickwork, windows, or balustrading, Bef the building was completed the handling of the fa: crdes was described on more than one aceasion as fashionable’ or ‘cliché-ridder’, For a cartain period of the design process tho architects wore advised by John Forrester, an abstract sculptor, but neither this, nor the Influence of fashion aaem to have had ‘much effect ~ it simply looks as if tho architects had ‘more important thinge on their minds than facade | patterns, Jack Lynn, indeed, has publicly stated that the arrangement of the Interiors was allowed to de- termine the exterior pattorn of solid and void, and ‘that he is happy with the result. Not, one presumo, fe an old time functionalist morally eecute in the knowledge that form has followed function, but more in the mood of one who seve it helping to bulld “the image of a building more concerned with Hf! than with architecture For, regard it how you wil, Pare Hill comes pretty | close to ‘an othor architecture’. Its informal plane | pattem on the ground is more concerned with a proper topological organisation of tha elte than with Pieturesque offect. Indd its level rot line has an ‘an-Picturesque quality 29 one sees the block from the city, though some extremely picturesque houetter should be presented by the second phase, Hyde Pare higher up the hill bin i. Hyde Park fe algo less rigorously organised in terms of topologi- eal connections than Park Hil, and the accommoda- tion is grouped in a more convontional manner in high and low blocks. In other words it fs housing, not a habitat, and marks a withdrawal from tho ox {rome position established by Park Hil “The moral crusade of Brutaliom for a better habitet through built environment probably reaches its cule mination at Park Hill Nothing proposed since haa been extreme in quito the same way, but many of its ideas are difusing into common usage, just a tho aosthetics of ‘béton brut have diffused into a \vermacular, «common usage. Brutalism, having ran (ten Wom yy are hyde Par og for ton yoars or more — which ie a fair age for an “iem’ in the present century — had achieved the onaummation that awaits all movements whlch ac- Curately pinpoint real nocd and aspirations oftheir petiod and social context. They do not achiove the dominance for whieh their founders hope, butinstoad thay met into tho history oftheir tine, so that one can hardy imagine what the word could have boon Tike before Brataliem (inthis ease) camo upon the scone. The face of the world does not conform to the Brutalist-sesthetic, but the conscionce of the ‘world’s architecture has been permanently envched by tho Brotalist ethic.8.41 Memoirs of survivor “The reader will have deduced, i he didnot already know, that this book i the work of someone Tay

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