Back to Brutalism

After a few months away from my Beautiful Brutalism project it was lovely to have a few days to work on it again and set up two more shoots. The first building I photographed was the Royal College of Physicians, London designed by Denys Lasdun in 1959. The building has a more classical feel then his most notable design, The National Theatre on the Southbank but still has those lovely angles and simple lines which I enjoy photographing.

The next building I wanted to add to my project is a smaller and less well known brutalist structure, Welbeck Street Car Park in Central London. Built in 1970 by Michael Blampied it is a real gem. With it's interlocking diamond-shaped concrete panels it definitely makes a statement, in an era when even a simple car park was well designed and didn't just blend into the urban landscape it still looks amazing.

To view the rest of the images and my project so far please visit my website.

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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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