New Brutalism, Again

Abstract

In January 1955, Architectural Design magazine published its first full-page article on New Brutalism. The article, coauthored by Alison and Peter Smithson and Theo Crosby, asserted that the movement could be attributed to a number of sources: a reevaluation of certain Modernist buildings of the 1920s and 30s, an interest in the work of the architectural historian Rudolf Wittkower, and a respect for traditional Japanese architecture. By focusing on the collaboration between Crosby and the Smithsons, this article highlights the importance they gave to Japanese architecture, which became for them a prism through which to reflect on Modernism and hence on their own work. The article retraces the debates between Peter Reyner Banham, the Smithsons and Crosby, in order to argue for the reintroduction of Crosby’s voice in the formulation of New Brutalism and its subsequent mutations.

KEYWORDS:

• New Brutalism
• Architectural Design
• Theo Crosby
• Alison and Peter Smithson

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

Notes

1 Theo Crosby, “Inauguration Speech” (Royal College of Art, London, UK, October 1991). Box 26, Theo Crosby Archive, Design Archive University of Brighton.

2 Gilbert Herbert, Martienssen and the International Style: The Modern Movement in South African Architecture (Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1975); and Iain Jackson and Jessica Holland, The Architecture of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).

3 David Mellor, “A ‘Glorious Technoculture’ in Nineteen-Fifties Britain: The Many Cultural Context of the Independent Group,” in The Independent Group: Post-war Britain and the Aesthetic of Plenty, ed. David Robbins (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 229–32.

4 This information is gleaned from two different sources: Theo Crosby, “Night Thoughts of a Faded Utopia,” in The Independent Group, ed. Robbins, 197; and Peter Smithson, interview by Louise Brodie, 1997, National Life Stories 7/19. Available online: https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Architects-Lives/021M-C0467X0024XX-0100V0 (accessed April 12, 2019). Smithson’s interview is partially transcribed here: “I went to Italy in 1947 or 1948. (That is the first time). With a friend, a male friend. We went to the Laurentian Medici Library and we met a tall young man who is South African, who read Pevsner and knew – whatever it is called – Mannerism. (Laugh …).” The Pevsner article mentioned is Nikolaus Pevsner, “The Architecture of Mannerism,” in The Mint, ed. Geoffrey Grigson (London: Routledge, 1946), 116–38.

5 Crosby, “Night Thoughts of a Faded Utopia,” 197.

6 Anne Crosby, Matthew (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2006), 50.

7 Ibid.

8 Steve Parnell, “AR’s and AD’s Post-War Editorial Policies: The Making of Modern Architecture in Britain,” Journal of Architecture 17 (2012): 763–75.

9 Theo Crosby, ed., Uppercase 3 (London: Whitefriars, 1960); and Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson, Urban Structuring: Studies of Alison & Peter Smithson (London: Studio Vista, 1967).

10 Reyner Banham, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic? (London: Architectural Press, 1966).

11 Theo Crosby, Alison Smithson, and Peter Smithson, “The New Brutalism,” Architectural Design 25, no. 1 (January 1955): 1.

12 Banham, New Brutalism, 48.

13 Ibid., 46.

14 Reyner Banham, “Revenge of the Picturesque: English Architectural Polemics, 1945–1965,” in Concerning Architecture: Essays on Architectural Writers and Writing presented to Nikolaus Pevsner, ed. John Summerson (London: Allen Lane, 1968), 266.

15 Dirk van den Heuvel, “Between Brutalists. The Banham Hypothesis and the Smithson Way of Life,” The Journal of Architecture 20, no. 2 (2015): 293.

16 Reyner Banham, “The New Brutalism,” Architectural Review 118 (December 1955): 354–61.

17 Reyner Banham, “This is Tomorrow,” Architectural Review 120 (September 1956): 186–8.

18 Van den Heuvel,“Between Brutalists,” 293–308.

19 M. Christine Boyer, “An Encounter with History: The Postwar Debate Between the English Journals of Architectural Review and Architectural Design (1945–1960)” (paper presented at Team 10: Keeping the Language of Modern Architecture Alive Conference, Delft, January 5–6, 2006), conference proceedings 135–63. Available online: http://www.team10online.org/research/papers/delft2/boyer.pdf (accessed April 12, 2019).

20 Alison Smithson, “House in Soho, London,” Architectural Design 23, no. 12 (1953): 342.

21 Banham, “New Brutalism,” 354–61.

22 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, 3rd ed. (London: Wiley, 1998 [1949]).

26 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid.

31 Philip Johnson, “School at Hunstanton, Norfolk, by Alison and Peter Smithson,” Architectural Review 116 (September 1954): 148–64.

32 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

33 Ibid.

34 Manfredo Tafuri, Theories and History of Architecture [1976], trans. Giorgio Verrecchia (London: Granada, 1989), 201.

35 Ibid., 125.

36 Ibid., 126.

37 Banham, “New Brutalism,” 354.

38 Ibid., 361.

39 Banham, “New Brutalism,” 361; and Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

40 Banham, “New Brutalism,” 360.

41 Ibid., 361; and Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

42 Banham, New Brutalism, 46–49.

43 Ibid., 48.

44 Bruno Taut, Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture (Tokyo: Kokusai Bunka, 1936).

45 Ibid., 13.

46 Ibid., 15.

47 Ibid.

48 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

49 Bruno Taut, Modern Architecture (London: A. & C. Boni, 1929).

50 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

51 Anthony Vidler, “Another Brick in the Wall,” October 136 (2011): 105–32.

52 Peter Smithson, “Untitled,” in Architecture of Technology, ed. Theo Crosby (London: Whitefriars, 1961), n.p.

53 Alison Smithson, Peter Smithson, Nigel Henderson, and Eduardo Paolozzi, “Group Six,” in This is Tomorrow, ed. Theo Crosby, exhibition catalog (London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1956), n.p.

54 Theo Crosby, German Facetti, William Turnbull, and Edward Wright, “Group One,” in This is Tomorrow, ed. Crosby, n.p.

55 Ibid.

56 Theo Crosby, “This is Tomorrow,” Architectural Design 26, no. 10 (1956): 335.

57 E. A. Gutkind, “How other Peoples Dwell and Build,” Architectural Design 23, no. 2 (1953): 31.

58 Ibid.

59 Crosby et al., “Group One,” n.p.

60 Taut, Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture, 15; and Gutkind, “How other Peoples Dwell and Build,” 33.

61 Reyner Banham, Rodney Wilson, and J. Cooper, dirs., Fathers of Pop (UK, 1979). Available online: http://artsonfilm.wmin.ac.uk/filmsuk.php (accessed April 12, 2019).

62 Van den Heuvel, “Between Brutalists,” 302.

63 Reyner Banham, “This is Tomorrow,” Architectural Review 120 (September 1956): 187.

64 Banham, “New Brutalism,” 361.

65 Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson, “The Rebirth of Japanese Architecture,” Architectural Design 33, no. 2 (1960): 55–81.

66 Ibid., 55.

67 Ibid., 60–3: “Chandigarh: the secretariat, the assembly building, the civic centre.”

68 Ibid., 56–7: “Dialogue: Questions by Mr. Kenzo Tange and answers by Mr. Antonin Raymond broadcast on April 27th, 28th, and 29th, 1960 in Japanese.”

69 Colin Rowe, “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa: Palladio and Le Corbusier Compared,” Architectural Review 101 (March 1947): 101–4.

70 Wittkower, Architectural Principles, 1.

71 Banham, “New Brutalism,” 361. Any “Wittkowerian geometry [at Hunstanton School] was only an ad hoc device.”

72 Ibid., 357.

73 Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson, Without Rhetoric; An Architectural Aesthetic, 1955–72 (London: Studio Vista, 1973), 3.

74 Ibid, 4.

75 Pentagram, Living by Design (London: Pentagram Design, 1978), 168.

76 Crosby had founded, with designers Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes, the design firm Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes in 1965. In 1972, with the addition of Kevin Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky, it became Pentagram.

77 Theo Crosby, quoted in Stephen Bayley, “Crosby, Theo,” in Contemporary Architects, ed. Muriel Emmanuel (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1980), 179.

78 Alison and Peter Smithson, “The New Brutalism: Alison and Peter Smithson answer the criticism on the opposite page,” Architectural Design 27, no. 4 (1957): 113; and Banham, “New Brutalism,” 352.

79 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

80 Raphael Samuel, Theatre of Memory (London: Verso, 1994), 51–83.

81 Alison Smithson and Peter Smithson, “AD Profile: Millbank,” Architectural Design 47, no. 7–8 (1977): 529.

82 Ibid.

83 Charles Jencks’ review of Learning from Las Vegas was published in the same issue of AD as the profile on Millbank. See Charles Jencks, “Venturi et al are Almost all Right,” Architectural Design 47, no. 7–8 (1977): 468–9.

84 Crosby, Smithson, and Smithson, “New Brutalism,” 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juliana Kei

Juliana Kei is a lecturer in architecture at Coventry University, UK. She is completing her PhD in History of Design at the Royal College of Art; her research explores the intersections between preservation advocacies and Postmodernism in British architecture through examining the works of British/South African architect Theo Crosby. Juliana is a registered architect and has practiced in Hong Kong, New York and London.