New Work - National Theatre Studio

It was great to start the new year with a bit of time to work on my personal project, Beautiful Brutalism and add the very elegant National Theatre Studio to the project. Designed by Lyons, Israel & Ellis in 1958 it was built to house the scenery workshops, painting studio, wardrobe and offices for The Old Vic which later became the National Theatre. It is one of the earliest and purest examples of 'New Brutalism' which emerged from corbusian aesthics of raw, expressed shuttered concrete. It is the only architect-designed theatre workshop ever built in Britain so was Grade II listed in 2006 and carefully refurbished in 2008 by Haworth Tompkins Architects.

To view the rest of the images from this project please visit - structraleye

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Brutalism in Photos Feature

Oracle Time Magazine featured a lovely positive article about brutalist architecture in London in their June issue of the magazine and online. Along with photographs from my ongoing personal project Beautiful Brutalism they also featured the work of photographers Simon Phipps and Hayley Goodwin. The online article can be read here .

New Work - Brutalist Playgounds

I have wanted to visit and add some brutalist playgrounds to my Beautiful Brutalism project for a long time. I remember playing on a concrete tube we called 'the saddle' at my old primary school and loved it. So have fond memories of these concrete playgrounds. Unfortunately not many have survived but last November I researched and visited a playground that was still standing down in South Clapham beneath Belgravia House tower block. This was a fantastic playground with a spiral slide and tunnels to run through the hill that housed the slide. It was great to see the playground was well maintained and looked like it was still used. I couldn't resist and have to say the slide was fantastic! The whole project can be seen here. Then earlier this year I visited the Aintree Estate playground in Fulham. The two tower blocks, Hartopp Point and Lannoy Point are due to be demolished this year so wanted to visit before access was difficult and the area the playground is sit

Prada meets Brutalism

I had a fantastic end to last year when I heard that one of my images of The National Theatre from my Beautiful Brutalism project had been sold through the RIBA Photolibrary and was used by New York based designers 2x4 to produce a wallpaper for the Prada epicenter store in NY and Dover Street Market. The wallpaper is called Brutalista and is a photo collage of fragments from notable mid-20th century buildings composed in such a way as to contradict the real geometries and perspectives of the space. The omnipresent concrete creates a uniform backdrop against which the collection stand out in vivid points of intense color. It's amazing to know that my image is on the wall of a Prada store in New York and brutalist architecture is gaining a few more fans. Now I just have to see if I can find a way of visiting NY and seeing it for myself! Part of my image can be seen on the right of the above photo and the rest of the Brutalista project can be seen here .

JO UNDERHILL / STRUCTURALEYE

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