Brutalist Britain: Buildings of the 1960s and 1970s

by Elain Harwood

An authoritative overview of an increasingly popular period of British architecture from a leading architectural historian.

Brutalist architecture is more popular now than ever. This beautifully photographed book looks at Britain’s finest brutalist buildings from the 1950s to the 1970s, featuring imposing and dramatic public buildings—like London’s National Theatre and Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral—along with lesser-known buildings such as Arlington House on Margate’s seafront, as well as houses and flats, shops, markets, town centers, and more. This book provides a fascinating overview of a postwar urban landscape, while an introduction places British brutalism within the context of global events and contemporary world architecture.

Genres: Architecture

304 pages, Hardcover

Published March 7, 2023

Reviews

[Ben G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A birthday gift and a wonderful revisiting of Elain Harwood's fascination for mid-20th century architecture; albeit focused soley on 'Brutalism'.

Residential properties included are mostly sourced within London and I've no doubt that there is a rich seam of brutalist bulit property here.

A cornucopia of brutalism across the UK incorporating buildings constructed for purposes of commerce, transport, learning and religion to name but a few.

[Jack Buck · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a person who struggles to read this was difficult, with references to people I have no idea about. Great for people that understand, study or work in architecture.

I’m a 3d artist and like to understand topics I’m working with so not probably the right / ideal audience for this book, but still a useful resource to have in my shelf.

[Tim O'Hearn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really neat book, the type of book that has largely been eviscerated in this decade. Great research, wonderful vocabulary, a nice focused effort if you're into brutalism, or, to a lesser extent, Great Britain.

[Tim Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very flawed book. Essentially written by an architect and only for architects. Also, having single photo of each building often really doesn’t show much about it.
Nevertheless, this made me look at buildings differently, even ones I had seen many times. Last weekends I even went out specifically to see Trellick Tower and barbican. As such, this has been absolutely worthwhile reading. I must recommend it for that reason.