brutalist buildings 1950s

Brutalist architecture is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descended from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. The term does not derive from the word "brutal", but originates from the French béton brut, or "raw concrete", a term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material. British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into "brutalism" (originally "New Brutalism") to identify the emerging style.
Brutalism became popular for educational buildings (especially university buildings), but was relatively rare for corporate projects. Brutalism became favoured for many government projects, high-rise housing, and shopping centres to create an architectural image that communicated strength, functionality, and frank expression of materiality.
More recently, "brutalism" has become used in popular discourse to refer to buildings of the late twentieth century that are large or unpopular – as a synonym for "brutal" – making its effective use in architectural historical discourse problematic.

habitat 67

experimental modular housing presented by Moshe Safdie at the 1967 World Expo in Montreal as a vision for the future of cities. a three-dimensional landscape of 354 stacked concrete "boxes", Habitat 67 pioneered the combination of two major housing typologies – the urban garden residence and the modular high-rise apartment building.
The original masterplan involved over 1,000 residences, alongside shops and a school. This was scaled down to just 158 homes, forming a 12-storey complex located beside the Saint Lawrence River in the centre of the city.
The public recognised in Habitat the possibility that high-rise living could be more like living in a village and have the quality of life of a house than what they associated with the negatives of apartment housing. While there were many theoretical proposals floating in the air at the time, the fact that we had the opportunity to realise Habitat, and for 50 million people to experience it during Expo as a real and living environment, suggested that this was a possible future reality."
To allow the prefabricated construction process to take place on site, a factory was built beside the site to produce the concrete modules, which were to be connected by high-tension rods, steel cables and welding.
Safdie believed this to be the most cost-efficient solution – a decision that ultimately backfired with costs spiralling to CAD$22 million, which represented about CAD$140,000 per home.

park hill Sheffield



Designed by Ivor Smith and Jack Lynn, a pair of young architects working at that time for Sheffield City Council, Park Hill was one of the most ambitious inner-city housing projects of its era.When the estate opened in 1961, it was credited as being the first successful community-wide slum clearance since the end of the Second World War. But by the 1980s it had a reputation as one of Britain's most notorious "sink estates", with high levels of crime, anti-social behaviour and poverty.
The complex is made up of a series of interconnected blocks constructed using concrete frames, which were left exposed and infilled with yellow, orange and red brick
To foster a sense of community spirit, families re-housed in Park Hill were put next to their original neighbours, and the streets around the site were named after the original roads the project was built over.
As well as homes, the complex accommodated pubs, schools, doctor and dental clinics, plus an assortment of shops that included a butcher, baker, pharmacy, newsagent, and fish and chip shop.
Unfortunately, the collapse of the steel industry – Sheffield's biggest income provider and employer – in the 1980s brought the radical ideals of Park Hill to an end. As money ran out, pubs were boarded up and the labyrinth of passages and decks became the perfect place for antisocial behaviour, vandalism and crime.
The fortunes of the complex changed in 1997 when Park Hill was granted a Grade II listing by English Heritage, making it the largest listed building in Europe.

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/12/channel-4-to-broadcast-alternative-to-insulting-brutalist-housing-estate-ident/