CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE Dr. Yasir Sakr Presentation

J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. What’s the Brutalism ? Brutalism architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement. Initially the style came about for government buildings, and it’s often from concrete construction. And it used also to construct low cost Housing, and shopping centers to create functional structures at a low cost. After that it adopted to create college Buildings for universities. The term “Brutalism” derived from the French phrase “buton brute” which a phrase Used by Le Corbusier. J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.

Brutalism grew out of the Bauhaus Movement and the béton brut buildings by Le Corbusier and his followers. Brutalism buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries. Brutalism as an architectural philosophy, rather than a style, was often also associated with a socialist utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers

The best known early Brutalism architecture is the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, in particular his Unité d'Habitation (1952) and the 1953 Secretariat Building in Chandigarh, India.

Characteristics of Brutalism Form follow function. Rough and unfinished surface. Precast concrete construction. Low cost construction. Quickly and economically constructed. Massive shapes and sculptures.

Unité d'Habitation Location: Marseille, France Architect: Le Corbusier Year :between 1947 and 1952.  Type :  modernist residential housing design.

The term “Unité d'Habitation” means (Housing Units). The concept formed the basis of several housing developments designed by him throughout Europe with this name, and to create a whole neighbourhood in one building. Le Corbusier created his own modular inspired from the human proportions and the golden section. This building is derived carefully from his modular. In Le Corbusier book ‘’ Toward A New Architecture’’ He put the five principles of modern architecture in his vision.

The five principles of the new architecture free standing supports – pilots the roof garden the free plan the ribbon window the freely composed façade

In Unité d'Habitation Le Corbusier used from the principles: 1. free standing supports

2. The roof Garden

The roof garden On the top floor there is roof garden with fantastic landscape, includes: 1. gymnasium and running track. 2. a nursery school. 3. tunnels and caves for children play in. 4. a swimming pool. 5. seats, cantilevered balcony. 6. restaurant.

3. The freely composed façade’. It’s taken carefully from his modular.

Characteristics of Unité d'Habitation carefully taken from the Modulor. 337 split-level apartments in 23 different types. Apartments entered from wide internal corridors or streets. There are 18 floors. About third of the way up, the internal corridor like a street. a two storey shopping mall

Interior Shot

Boston City Hall Year:1968 Architect: Kallmam Mackinell and Knowles Location: USA, Boston  Architectural School: Brutalism

 it is an example of the brutalism style.  City Hall is part of the Government Centre complex, a major urban redesign effort in the 1960s. The designers designed City Hall as divided into three sections the City Hall was designed to create an open and accessible place for the city's government, with the most heavily used public activities all located on the lower levels directly connected to the plaza.  the architects sought to create a bold statement of modern civic democracy, placed within the historic city of Boston. Many of the elements in the design have been seen as abstractions of classical design elements.

Divisions:  The lowest portion of the building, the brick-faced base, which is partially built into a hillside, consists of four levels of the departments of city government where the public has wide access The intermediate portion of City Hall houses the public officials: the Mayor, the City Council members, and the Council Chamber. The oversize scale and the protrusion of these interior spaces on the outside—instead of burying them deep within the building—reveal these important public functions to the passerby, and create a visual and symbolic connection between the city and its government. The upper stories contain the city’s office space, used by civil servants not visited frequently by the public, such as the administrative and planning departments. 

The top of the brick base was designed as an elevated courtyard melding the fourth floor of the city hall with the plaza. Because of security concerns, city officials in recent years blocked access to the courtyard and to the outdoor stairways to Congress Street and the plaza.

City Hall was constructed using mainly cast-in-place and precast Portland cement concrete and some masonry. About half of the concrete used in the building was precast.

Robin Hood Gardens Architect: Alison and Peter Smithson. Location: Poplar, London Year:  in the late 1960s. Architectural School: Brutalism

 It was intended as an example of the 'streets in the sky' concept: social housing characterised by broad aerial walkways in long concrete blocks, much like the Park Hill estate in Sheffield; it was both informed by, and a reaction against Le Corbusier, 's Unite dhabtation. . It covers about two hectares and consists of two long blocks, one of ten storeys, the other of seven, built from precast concrete slabs and containing 213 flats It’s on  Brutalist Architecture. The campaign to save Robin Hood Gardens drew very little support from those who actually had to live in the building, with more than 75% of residents supporting its demolition when consulted by the local authority

ENGINEERING BUILDING, LEICESTER UNIVERSITY Architect: JAMES STIRLING Location: UK, LEICESER Year: 1964.  

The spate of college and university construction on both sides of the Atlantic during the past few years has already produced a just dividend of worthy buildings. Interior

Site Plan

Plans

Architect :Goldfinger, Ernö location : london,England Year : 1972 Trellick Tower Architect :Goldfinger, Ernö location : london,England Year : 1972

About the building Building Type: Row house Slab, gallery access skip stop,Tower Exterior Finish Materials: concrete, wood, metal Construction Type: poured concrete cross walls, pre-cast concrete

Concept The original idea of prewar architects was for apartment blocks set in parkland and containing all the facilities that people and their families would need

Trellick design innovations the sound-proofing (Goldfinger wanted double glazing to help control the noise from the trains leading into Pancreas Station lighting, windows that pivoted for cleaning large rooms, individual fan-coil units for heating and there were spectacular views across London

proportional systems Goldfinger used proportional systems in his buildings applying a modular grid and regulating lines to achieve more harmonious results. Apparently, the added 4 floors in Trellick and the repositioning of the horizontal band of maisonettes were done to improve the overall proportions over Balfron. The rendered axonometrics that were an office trademark showcase the precise proportions of these deep, gridded facades

Circulation The circulation element is rendered as a separate small tower and, in addition to elevators and stairs, contains mechanical equipment, including the boiler, as well as shared community spaces. The bridge elements between slab and tower are insulated with neoprene pads to achieve sound and vibration isolation. The opposite end of the building is expressed as a vertical zone of walls and different windows reflecting the presence of the 2nd stair and a zone of different dwellings that occupy the end of the building as compared to the side. Goldfinger was critical of the shopping floors in the Marseille block. But he included a zone of marionettes with “pulpit” balconies at the two-thirds point in Trellick--that is expressed as a horizontal interruption to the vertical continuity of the south façade. The gallery facades are expressed as alternating horizontal bands of gallery windows or fully glazed dwellings

Plans

Section The sectional organization features an enclosed gallery at every 3rd floor with entrance and stairs to flats or maisonettes above and below the access level. The galleries connect to a detached vertical circulation tower with bridges at every 3rd floor. The circulation element is rendered as a separate small tower and, in addition to elevators and stairs, contains mechanical equipment, including the boiler, as well as shared community spaces

The Trellick tower is a SOCIAL CONDENSER because, as these type of buildings do, it includes: Residential buildings with a service programme associated to the dwellings Public initiative Isolated location in the urban fabric Exclusive use of the service programme by residents

Drawings Elevations Axonometric

The Engineering Building comprises large ground-level workshops (heavy machinery), covering most of the available site, and a vertical ensemble consisting of office and laboratory towers, lecture theaters and lift and staircase shafts The work of James Stirling is permeated by a mannerist taste for distortion and paradox, especially at the Engineering School in Leicester (1960-3), where the diversity of forms, expressive of the internal functions of the building, is a pretext for the liveliest interplay of masses. It has been cited in a new national list of famous structures.

The Engineering Building was the first post-Modernist building in the UK. The top storey of the tower, the 11th floor, is a water tank . The idea for the building came two years after the university was granted its Royal Charter in 1957.  Aim: the university wanted a building which reflected the confidence of a newly independent university and an eagerness to embrace the modern and the innovative.

Palace of Assembly. Architect: Le Corbusier Location: Chandigarh, India Project Year: 1953-1963

Palace of Assembly. One of Le Corbusier‘s most prominent buildings from India, the Palace of the Assembly in Chandigarh boasts his major architectural philosophies and style. Le Corbusier‘s five points of architecture can be found within the design from its open plan to the view of the Himalayan landscape. The program features a circular assembly chamber, a forum for conversation and transactions, and stair-free circulation

Palace of Assembly. The first of Le Corbusier’s architectural ideals is the use of pilotis to lift the structure off of the ground. Reinforced concrete columns are utilized in a grid throughout the Palace of the Assembly and are slightly altered to raise a large swooping concrete form high above the entrance

Palace of Assembly. This form represents the second point of Le Cobusier’s list– a free facade. Pilotis allow the form to express the grandiose release of space precisely as Corbusier intended. The other various facades of the building also bestow the free facade via brise-soleil formed from the golden ratio.

Palace of Assembly. Le Corbusier used his own paints in the interior design of the building.

Palace of Assembly. Inside, the Palace of the Assembly houses an open plan structured by the grid of reinforced concrete columns. Again, this structural pattern allows Le Corbusier to manipulated the program freely and place offices and other private programming along the outside of the plan and leave the center open for public use

Palace of Assembly. On top of the building lies an accessible roof supported by the pilotis. Providing usable space on the roof of a structure complies with Le Corbusier’s fifth ideal of architecture by giving occupants vertical means of connecting to nature and compensating for the habitat removed by the building.

Palace of Assembly. water surfaces existed in the indian / hindu mythology – many of their buildings were floating over water The arches were taken from bulls.