In the 2010s the rediscovery and re-appreciation of Brutalism after decades of neglect and rejection took flight: thanks to social media global examples of Brutalist architecture were shared, liked, commented and ultimately documented, leading to a certain hype about the „Concrete Monsters“. Out of this global development the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, curator Oliver Elser and countless contributors developed the SOS Brutalism database that collected buildings and their current conditions to enable interested parties to counteract plans for demolition or alteration. In 2017 these efforts culminated in the traveling exhibition „SOS Brutalism - Save the Concrete Monsters“ which was accompanied by the present two volume catalogue published by Park Books. It consists of the thinner proceedings of a 2012 Brutalism symposium in Berlin and the weighty catalogue „SOS Brutalismus - Eine Internationale Bestandsaufnahme“ that takes stock of international Brutalist architecture. With 120 projects in 12 regions of the world, the volume gathers a significant number and broad array of buildings that document the diversity of Brutalism as well as its adaptability to the different climate zones. Interspersed are four essays and six case studies that address the development/proliferation of Brutalism and its manifestation in, among other things, German church architecture, Britain’s university architecture or Japan’s civic and cultural centers.
As a result of the multi-perspective view on Brutalism the reader is provided with a profound history of Brutalism, its theoretical underpinnings and its regional manifestations that make the present volume(s) true reference works. Unfortunately they have been long out of print…
