Raise the main storey on slender columns so that the ground beneath flows under the building (for circulation, cars, gardens or public space) and the rooms are lifted into light, air and view.
Rules · Materials · Structure · Theory
Béton brut: concrete as found
Leave concrete as it comes from the formwork, marked by the grain of the boards and the joints of the shuttering, and let the structure be seen.
At Marseille the concrete was left rough partly out of necessity (post-war shortages of skilled labour made a fine finish impossible), and Le Corbusier made a virtue of it, comparing the marks of the formwork to the texture of stone. The English critic Reyner Banham gave the name “New Brutalism” to the architecture that followed, and defined it by three qualities: memorability as an image, clear exhibition of structure, and valuation of materials for their inherent qualities, as found.
Brutalism became an international language for universities, housing estates, theatres and city halls in the 1950s–70s. Its heavy forms and weathering surfaces have made it the most disputed modern style: many of its buildings have been demolished, and many others listed for protection.
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Make the roof flat and use it: a garden and terrace that gives back to the building the ground it covers, drained inward and kept watertight by a continuous membrane.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Béton brut: concrete as found”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/beton-brut. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.