Post War Britain / New Brutalists

Question 1

What is New Brutalism?

Answer 1

• A style that became popular for English social reform.
• brick walls, low pitched roofs, square wooden windows all became the ‘peoples’ detailing’
• New Brutalists were against this ‘peoples detailing’
• had an identifiable Palladian tendency

Question 2

Who were the initial advocators of the New Brutalist movement?

Answer 2

Alison and Peter Smithson.they were against the ‘Festival of Britain’ in 1951.

Question 3

What exhibition were the Smithsons involved with?

Answer 3

“This is Tomorrow Exhibition”, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1956.
They joined an independant group of artists and photographers.

Question 4

What building did the Brutalist movement first appear in?

Answer 4

Smithsons. (Hunstanton) Secondary School. Norfolk. 1954.

• It shows truth to material
• Obsessive concern for the expressive articulation of mechanical and structural elements.
• The design was influenced by Mies’s IIT campus in Chicago.

Question 5

Who was James Stirling?

Answer 5

• He shows the ultimate integration of British Brutalist Aesthetic.
• He was influenced by Corb’s late work.
• Fushion of contraditctory formalist and populist aspects into a glass and brick vernacular drawn from industrial structures of the 19th century.
• significance of quality of style.

Question 6

Name one of James Stirlings buildings.

Answer 6

Stirling & Gowan. Engineering Building. Leicester University. 1959.