10 Iconic Brutalist Buildings

E merging from the chaos and destruction of World War Two, Brutalism – from the French word brut, meaning raw – enjoyed about two decades as the dominant ethos in progressive Modernist architecture. In blending functionality and bold expression, it was also a pragmatic form given the surfeit of raw concrete washing around the Western world at the time due to the necessity of rapid urban reconstruction.

Brutalism is more than harsh, austere concrete structures. The movement explored sculptural potential, imbuing structures with a sense of honesty, emphasizing functionality and social utility over decorative fripperies. Today, the movement’s legacy is both celebrated and contested: celebrated for its monumental impact on cityscapes worldwide, and contested by the ever-fickle vagaries of public perception.

Among its iconic landmarks, the domineering Breuer museum in New York’s Upper East Side serves as a thrilling exemplar of the movement, embodying Brutalism’s powerful influence on contemporary architecture and cultural spaces worldwide. Initially constructed as the site of the Whitney Museum of American Art, it has since played home to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection – and later this year will become Sotheby’s New York headquarters.

Below, we tour ten10of the world’s most brutally beautiful Brutalist buildings, from state housing to seats of government, and note their legacy, function and impact.

This massive béton brut (raw concrete) structure embodies the post-war ideal of a self-contained living environment, incorporating shops, apartments, a gym and school. It uses a modular, repetitive design based on Le Corbusier’s “Modolor” system that gives the building a slightly Ballardian, sci-fi feel. Adding to the unnerving strangeness is the fact that elevated from the ground, propped on stilts, to further distinguish it from its surroundings.

Why It Matters: This is the original Brutalist building, being named after béton brut (raw concrete).

Fun Fact: The building has its own internal “streets” every three floors. It’s a vertical village!

With its stark geometric forms, exposed concrete and brick and functional layout, this building was made with the noblest ideals of politics literally incorporated into its design, democracy and transparency.

Why It Matters: Over 50 years since its unveiling, it remains one of the most controversial Brutalist buildings in the United States. Suitably for a symbol of the political process, it is widely loved – and disliked – for its uncompromising aesthetic.

Fun Fact: There have been multiple public campaigns to demolish it. And just as many to preserve it.

One of London’s most iconic structures, The Barbican, as it’s commonly referred to by locals, is a massive, grayish, textured concrete complex. Housing an independent arts and performance center, the enclosing residential structure features elevated walkways connecting a vertical maze of (highly sought-after) apartments, with functional green spaces, a library, a school, bars and more.

Why It Matters: Rather like Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, The Barbican was intended as a model of post-war urban living that aimed to be self-contained and community-centered.

Fun Fact: The Barbican is built on the site of an ancient Roman fort, which is though to have existed between 90A-120 AD. The name “Barbican” is derived from the Latin word Barbecana – a fortified outpost or gateway.

Collectors

The Curator Redefining Contemporary Art at the Barbican Centre

Completed at the height of Brutalmania, in 1967, this striking modular structure of prefab concrete units stacked in unique configurations continues a recurring motif in our selection of Brutal bangers – representing an utopian, Modernist ideal of urban living. Every unit even has its own private garden and access to natural light.

Why It Matters: A superb case of powerful Brutalism meeting sculptural form, Habitat 67 ingeniously imbued concrete with a playful, humanistic perspective.

Fun Fact: Architect Moshe Safdie designed Habitat 67 for his thesis at McGill University, making it the launchpad for his career.

A building devoted to architectural studies needs to be powerful. The Paul Rudolph Hall at Yale does just that. Over 60 years since opening, it remains a powerful statement of Brutalist innovation and textures. Its concrete outer shell was textured with a “bush-hammered” technique to emphasize texture, weight, materiality and spatial drama.

Why It Matters: It’s a deeply expressive Brutalist icon that inspired generations of American architects.

Fun Fact: It was partially destroyed by fire in 1969. Arson by a disgruntled architecture student was suspected (but never proven).

Blending Brutalism with a decidedly Bengali vernacular, this monumental structure housing the Bangladeshi government uses light and shadow in core elements, filling out the building’s stunning geometric forms. Despite the decades of political squabbles over its building, the construction delays occasioned by war and political instability and subsequent decades of spiraling maintenance costs, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, as it’s known locally, is an intriguing Eastern twist on the Brutalist movement. Despite its troubled existence, it conveys a massive calm assurance, with its spiritual elements and spatial harmony.

Why It Matters: Marrying Brutalist materiality with spiritual geometry, the National Assembly Building combines Eastern and Western architectural forms in a unique edifice.

Fun Fact: The building contains 50 flights of stairs, 240 bathrooms, 1,635 doors, 335 windows, 300 partitions and thousands of square meters of glass panels and wood.

Looming large over the gloomy West London skyline, this 31-story concrete twin-tower structure arrived as Brutalist living – AKA high-rise tower blocks – were falling out of favor. In its early years, Trellick was an infamous crime hotspot, badly mismanaged and semi-derelict, earning it the local nickname “The Tower of Terror.” Today, cleaned up and properly managed, it takes its rightful place as a British design icon.

Why It Matters: A symbol of both the utopian ideal and potential failure of social housing – yet now a recognized as a design icon.

Fun Fact: Architect Ernõ Goldfinger first designed the building freehand, on butcher’s paper.

A controversial structure in the heart of London’s South Bank, the home of British theater has been variously described as a “nuclear power station” by King Charles, a “lovely work” by poet Sir John Betjeman and “an aesthetic of broken forms” by architectural writer Mark Girouard. Designed around the idea of an Ancient Greek amphitheater, with layered concrete terraces, the NT’s modular, cubic design was shaped to maximize efficient airflow throughout, while exuding an austere air of Brutalist functionality, reminiscent of Le Corbusier.

Why It Matters: Critics and a large proportion of the public hated it when it opened in 1976. Today’s it’s renowned as one of Britain’s finest expressions of Brutalism.

Fun Fact: Actors’ dressing rooms at the National Theatre are built around a central light shaft, their windows facing each other. This has led to a tradition where on opening and closing nights, actors celebrate by going to their dressing room windows and beating the glass with the palms of their hands. Bravo!

The architectural equivalent of a smart, well-tailored wool suit worn with steel-toed boots, the concrete and granite Breuer building at Madison Ave and 75th St exudes power and authority. Looming over the Upper East Side, this extraordinary example of muscular urban Brutalism will enter the latest phase of its storied existence when it becomes Sotheby’s global headquarters, later in 2025. The former Whitney Museum, the Breuer defies architectural convention by tapering inwards as it rises, its deeply recessed and asymmetrical windows adding to the sense of the unexpected and dramatic.

Why It Matters: The building was designed to provoke reaction and controversy in its original iteration as the home of the Whitney. Neither ingratiating or friendly, it is a rare example of urban architecture deliberately setting out to confront and disrupt its neighbors.

Fun Fact: Breuer originally trained at the Bauhaus and brought that clean functionality into his Brutalist work. The Breuer reflects that Bauhaus soul – but grown up, brooding, and New York-cool.

Looming over Milan, with its top-heavy silhouette echoing New York’s Breuer building, the Velasca Tower fuses 1950s Brutalism and Modernist thought with elements of local vernacular. Specifically, the concrete form draws on Milanese medieval castles, in an unlikely collision of ancient and modern.

Why It Matters: One of the earliest and most unique Brutalist high-rises in Europe.

Fun Fact: Currently being renovated by a team led by architect Paolo Asti, the grounds surrounding the Torre Velasca are being redeveloped as a public space, because according to the architect, “over the years, in daily life, the Milanese have rarely had a direct, close relationship with the Tower.”