Academic Session: “A Mass of Tradition and Association:” Reviving and Reliving the Buildings Of Brutalism

The past decade has witnessed growing public and scholarly interest in the modernist buildings termed “Brutalist” that were constructed from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. While the definitions of the term Brutalism are still debated, its application generally refers to an international phenomenon characterized by the use of exposed materials such as brick and, perhaps more commonly, concrete, and a set of additional common denominators that address shape, surface and monumentality. The cultural and socio-historical circumstances of their erection vary greatly, and they were constructed for diverse uses in the realms of civic and public architecture, as well as for mass housing complexes and private dwellings.

In view of the environmental advantages of re-use, and through the growing public awareness of the built heritage of the modern movement, Brutalist buildings are beginning to be included in preservation schemes, and have become a significant source of inspiration for the revival of the use of exposed concrete in both domestic and public architecture.

Over the years, Brutalist buildings have met with harsh criticism and bias. Their ongoing usage in the twenty first century therefore calls for a fresh discussion of the critical and polemical issues pertaining to both their historical research and their adaptation. The latter has been a challenge, to say the least, or as Owen Hatherley states in A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain (2007): “when the heritage industry lays its hands on Brutalism, it unsurprisingly gets its fingers burnt…”

This session calls for papers that investigate the challenges of the re-use and adaptability of Brutalist buildings in their diverse international guises. Papers may discuss transformations in the functions of these buildings, methods of reviving and adapting them as well as their role in urban or rural renewal. We invite papers that explore the approaches to Brutalist design and form in their adaptive re-use, as well as research that discusses the changing social and political function of these buildings. Range of topics may also include the public debates surrounding demolition versus the salvation of buildings, as well as the contribution of academic research and exhibitions to shaping decisions regarding questions of preservation.

Session Chairs:

• Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler, Sapir Academic College / Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel;
• Ruth Verde Zein, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, Brazil.

Email paper proposals via the online abstract submission system.