In 1955, an article titled “The New Brutalism” appeared in The Architectural Review. Written by Reyner Banham (1922-1988), a prominent British architectural critic and writer, it articulated and defined a movement initially characterized by flat roofs, glass facades, and exposed materials and structures. This movement later encompassed significant postwar developments in modern architecture, pioneered by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier (1887–1965) and British figures like Alison and Peter Smithson. It distinguished itself from the British architectural tradition of the New Humanism, which employed brick facades, arches, pitched roofs, and small window panes as its design vocabulary. Banham also contextualized both movements’' innovations in material treatment, spatial layout, and construction practices within the broader socio-cultural evolution of the time, linking them to the then-prevalent socio-economic (communist) versus capitalist debates.
Eleven years after publishing this seminal article, Banham reorganized and compiled this book—The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?—re-examining the burgeoning New Brutalist architecture worldwide during the 1950s and 1960s and its mission for architectural reform. Meanwhile, this book can be seen as an attempt to write about an architectural movement through the lens of art history—much like French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) documented contemporary creative movements and their cultural contexts in Les Peintres Cubistes (1913). According to Banham’s research, the term “New Brutalism” was coined by Hans Asplund (1921–1994)— son of the renowned Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund (1885–1940). He initially used it as a playful description of a colleague’s work, casually mentioning it at gatherings with British friends, which unexpectedly sparked fervent debate in Britain. This formal label, originally imbued with Scandinavian style, was also reinterpreted as an ethical approach to architecture. It encompassed the “honest” design principle of openly displaying building materials, structures, and construction, as well as functional aspects such as social housing spaces tied to welfare issues, including the right to housing.
Beyond the architects mentioned earlier, the collection also features works by American architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), Paul Rudolph (1918-1997), both contributed works for Yale University—the Art Gallery (1953) and the Student Residence (1962), respectively—alongside multiple projects by British architect James Stirling (1926-1992) and works by Nordic architects Sverre Fehn (1924–2009) and Sigurd Lewerentz (1885–1975). Despite limitations in contemporary photography and printing technology, which resulted in the inclusion of only black-and-white architectural photographs, the book’s focus on structural forms and architectural details, conveyed through compelling imagery,has established it as a significant architectural reference. Combined with Banham’s written commentary, this volume stands as an indispensable classic in architectural history.
