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Robust defence of ‘brutalism’
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a photographic record of an architectural movement which is often wrongly denigrated
(L to R) Leeds Bank House and Preston Bus Station
[Simon Phipps]
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Brutal North
by Simon Phipps
(September Publishing, £16.99)
SIMON PHIPPS’S Brutal North is a stupendous photographic record of the so-called brutalist architecture of northern England. In it, his instinct for composition and employment of sharp viewing angles captures the spirit of some exquisite buildings.
Deliberately shot on mainly cloudy days and in dissipated light, Phipps achieves a clarity of detail that would be buried by contrast on a sunny day.
The term brutalist is derived from a lazy translation of the French “beton brut,” which simply means “raw concrete.” It describes surfaces of buildings left untreated which often, by design, register the imprint of the textures of the timber used in the forms in which the concrete is poured.
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