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Modern architecture had two parallel directions in the immediate post-war years: the functional, represented by the sleek, cubiform buildings of the international style; and the …
Newer: Twentieth century post modern →
One of the central pillars of modernism was to remove traditional forms of building and decoration from architecture: cubiform buildings with flat roofs replaced pillars …
Late twentieth century brutalist
The original inspiration for the brutalist style came from Le Corbusier’s French buildings of the early 1950s. They demonstrated an uncompromising attitude to materials and construction that influenced architecture for several decades. Buildings in the international style had a certain lightness of style, with plain, smooth wall surfaces.
In contrast, brutalist buildings demonstrated an aggressive largeness of scale and a strong, muscular character, often with services exposed or contained in a featured semi-cylindrical element. Reinforced concrete showing the imprint of its formwork was the material of choice. English architects Alison and Peter Smithson were among the first to articulate the ‘new brutalism’ in their Hunstanton School, Norfolk (1949-53).
The first brutalist style building in Australia was the Hale School Memorial Hall in Perth, designed by Marshall Clifton and completed in 1961. It was greeted with a mixture of praise and outrage. The style became more common—if not popular—by the mid 1970s.
One of the best examples in Australia can be found in Canberra—the Cameron Offices by John Andrews. The most outstanding example in Australia of a house in the brutalist style is probably the Harry and Penelope Seidler house at Killara, which can be seen on the Seidler and Associates website. The CCAE (now UC) Student Residences are the most notable example in Canberra.
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