Often seen as the most disgraceful architectural style of the 20th century, Brutalism also has devoted fans. New York's MoMA is taking a concentrated look at the style in the former Yugoslavia.
Image: MoMa/Valentin Jeck
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Threatened or protected: Brutalist architecture around the world
Seen by many as the most disgraceful architectural style of the 20th century, Brutalism also has devoted fans who want to save threatened or neglected historic buildings. DW takes a look at Brutalist masterpieces.
Image: CC BY-NC 2.0/Glasgowfoodie
Stark contrasts
Built in 1971, Miodrag Zivkovic's monument to the Battle of Sutjeska is located in Sutjeska National Park, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was erected to commemorate the some 20,000 partisans who fought against advancing German forces in May and June 1943. The work is shown in MoMA's "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980" exhibition.
Image: MoMa/Valentin Jeck
Center of learning
The National and University Library of Kosovo was designed by Andrija Mutnjakovic and inaugurated in Pristina in 1982. It's mission is to "collect, preserve and promote the documentary and intellectual heritage of Kosovo." According to the architect, the building itself is meant "to represent a style blending Byzantine and Islamic architectural forms." It is likewise depicted in the MoMA show.
Image: MoMa/Valentin Jeck
A movement based on concrete
Brutalist architecture is characterized above all by its exposed, raw concrete – called "béton brut" in French, which gave the style its name. A pioneer of the movement was the famous Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. Pictured here is a section of his Unité d'Habitation in Marseilles, France. Many Brutalist buildings are threatened today, damaged through neglect or facing demolition.
Image: CC BY-NC 2.0/Glasgowfoodie
An international trend
Brutalism was popular from the 1950s to the 1970s, when concrete giants were erected all over the world. Influencing a whole architectural movement on the Indian subcontinent, Le Corbusier designed distinctive buildings in Ahmedabad and Chandigarh at the beginning of the 1950s, such as the Secretariat Building shown here.
The El Helicoide building in Caracas, Venezuela, was initially planned as a huge shopping center, but its construction came to a halt in 1960 due to lacking funds and political conflicts. It was illegally occupied in the 1970s, and later became the headquarters of the country's intelligence agency. Today, parts are used as a detention center. Other sections are abandoned, surrounded by slums.
Image: Imago/A. Sosa
Heated debates in the US, UK
Brutalist buildings are particularly controversial in the United States and Great Britain. As one of the most renowned critics of the architectural style, Prince Charles certainly wouldn't mind getting rid of a few of them. However, The Egg in Albany, New York, is definitely here to stay. Completed in 1978, this performing arts venue is now an icon of the New York Capital District.
Image: CC BY Paul Sableman
Classics face demolition
Despite years spent fighting for its preservation with a high-profile campaign, backed among others by the late star architect Zaha Hadid, the residential complex Robin Hood Gardens in London has been marked for demolition since 2015. The two apartment buildings were conceived by the architects Alison and Peter Smithson and built in the early 1970s.
Image: DW/J. Jitz
Challenging heritage
Other Brutalist buildings have obtained a listed status, protecting them from demolition - but sometimes their use remains problematic. The Preston Bus Station in northern UK is too large for the buses currently going through that transport hub. An architectural firm based in New York is in charge of revamping the station and plans to convert part of it into a youth center and sports facilities.
Image: picture-alliance/Arcaid/A. Haslam
German Brutalism endangered
Brutalist buildings are threatened in Germany as well. The project #SOSBrutalism, initiated by the German Architecture Museum (DAM) in cooperation with the Wüstenrot Foundation, aims to draw attention to deteriorating buildings. Among them is the Central Animal Laboratory of the Free University of Berlin, also called the "Mouse Bunker."
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images/J. Raible
Successful conversion
Very often, the funds necessary for the maintenance and restoration needed to save endangered buildings are lacking. St. Agnes Church in Berlin was one of these buildings at risk - until the Brutalist building was leased in 2011 by the gallery owner Johann König, who invested in its restoration. Its distinctive architecture has been preserved, but it is now used as a gallery.
The Hotel Thermal was built in the 1960s to showcase cutting-edge Czech architecture and contribute to establishing the reputation of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Now facing possible demolition, the families of the architects have launched the campaign "Respekt Madam" to save the building.
Image: wikimedia.org/Daniel Šebesta
Brutalism with a twist
Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada, is one the world's most famous Brutalist buildings. Yet when architect Moshe Safdie designed it for the international exposition Expo 67, he actually claimed it to be a counter reaction to Brutalism. Each of these intricately stacked apartments has its own roof garden. The residential estate was heritage listed in 2009.
Image: picture-alliance/Arcaid/M. Harding
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Yugoslavia was nestled between the capitalist West and the socialist East. The country's location influenced its architects immensely. As New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which is hosting the exhibition "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980," wrote on their website: "The architecture that emerged – from International Style skyscrapers to Brutalist 'social condensers' – is a manifestation of the radical diversity, hybridity, and idealism that characterized the Yugoslav state itself."
This is the first time the work of socialist Yugoslavia's leading architects is being shown to an international audience, with the exhibition focusing on "themes of large-scale urbanization, technology in everyday life, consumerism, monuments and memorialization."
The show includes hundreds of drawings, photographs and film reels that reflect everything from the interior of the White Mosque in rural Bosnia to the post-earthquake reconstruction of the city of Skopje or the new town of New Belgrade with its large-scale housing blocks.
The exhibition runs through January 13, 2019.
Click through our picture gallery above for more on Brutalist architecture around the world.
