The World’s First Museum of Brutalist Architecture to Open in London

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Everyone remembers their first love. For me, the first Brutalist building I fell in love with was the International House Philadelphia, which was known affectionately by locals as IHOP. 

A hulking 1970s concrete building near the Penn and Drexel campuses, the IHOP was a gentle giant, a hub for community events that also served as a residence hall for international students. When I was a grad student, I would go there for weekend screenings of classic movies: The Great Dictator, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, that kind of thing. Like these films, IHOP’s architecture was sophisticated but refreshingly uncommercial. To put it in Gen Z terms, it was giving socialism. I never felt more at home than I did inside its heavy, rust-streaked walls. 

The Brutalist style of architecture, which peaked in popularity in the US and Europe in the 1960s and 70s, was commonly used for civic, cultural and academic buildings like the IHOP. It was also often used for residential complexes, especially public housing developments. Importantly, it was not favored for corporate headquarters or luxury residences. Brutalism was an unapologetically public aesthetic, a fact that made it seem stubborn — even defiant — in an era when the political winds were pushing toward mass privatization. 

It is no coincidence that many of the greatest Brutalist buildings can be found in the UK, a nation where the birth of neoliberalism was met with fierce resistance from labor unions and other groups that fought to preserve social democracy. If Margaret Thatcher is known for her assertion that there was “no alternative” to the dismantling of the welfare state, Brutalist architecture represents an obdurate counterpoint. According to the British socialist architecture critic Owen Hatherley, Brutalism was not a “mere style,” but “a political aesthetic, an attitude, a weapon, dedicated to the precept that nothing was too good for ordinary people.” This heroic dimension of Brutalism can still be seen in the sheer scale of building projects in London, like the Barbican Estate. It is fitting, then, that London will be the home for the world’s first Museum of Brutalist Architecture (MoBA).

View South across three of the Barbican Estate’s tall tower blocks |  Riodamascus, Barbican towers, CC BY-SA 3.0

The question of how Brutalist architecture is connected to social democracy might require some explanation. Part of it is just the fact that the major social housing projects of the 1960s in Britain were created in this style. As the MoBA website explains, the working class Londoners who moved into these massive estates often had never before lived in homes with modern plumbing. To these people, Brutalism represented a major leap forward in living standards — one that would have been impossible without major public investment in housing. 

But there was also something in the form of the buildings that spoke to a public ethos. By foregrounding building materials and structural elements in their designs, Brutalist architects were reacting against the sheen of consumer culture, what Guy Debord called “the society of the spectacle.” They were also choosing to work with low cost, durable materials, emphasizing how, in modern industrial society, goods like quality housing should be considered forms of public infrastructure, available to all citizens. In a 1957 text, Alison Smithson, one of the earliest Brutalist architects, explained, “Up to now Brutalism has been discussed stylistically, whereas its essence is ethical.”

The question now is whether the Museum of Brutalist Architecture (MoBA) will emphasize the “ethical” legacy of the style — a style that is bound up not just with the history of social democracy in the UK but with its demise. After all, Brutalism, like social democracy, eventually fell into disrepute with the general public. Filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick used Brutalist buildings as the backdrops to their dystopian stories. A true account of the legacy of Brutalism would need to examine it dialectically, accounting for both its triumphs and shortcomings. 

Few buildings have had as volatile a history as London’s Trellick Tower. Originally a celebrated public housing project, crime led to this building being named the “Tower of Terror.” However, it has since been rehabilitated. Private flats here are today in high demand | Gunnar Klack, 2002-05-Trellick-Tower, CC BY-SA 4.0

The most exciting aspect of the MoBA is its origin story. The museum will be housed in the Assembly Hall of a secondary school, Acland Burghley School in Camden. The school is a Grade II listed Brutalist structure designed by the storied post-war firm Howell, Killick, Partridge & Amis and constructed in 1968. A community effort called A Hall for All won a £1,000,000 grant from the Heritage Fund to renovate their hexagonal assembly hall into a community center and Museum of Brutalist Architecture that will celebrate the legacy of both the school itself and its connection to the wider movement of Brutalism. 

The timeline for the renovation and museum opening has not yet been announced. But the MoBA website is already an exciting resource for Brutalism lovers, featuring numerous articles and videos pulled from around the web as well as an interactive map that lists major Brutalist buildings in the UK and surrounding countries. It will be interesting to see, as the school develops, what impact it will have for the students of Acland Burghley School. With any luck, it will rekindle their belief that there is, in fact, an “alternative” to the free market — especially when it comes to providing quality housing for all.

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Cover Image: Detail of Brutalist structure in Croydon | J-Fair, Croydon Brutalism (39980547825), CC BY 2.0

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