What's your favourite bit of brutalist architecture?

[MontyVeda]

Not what i'd call 'brutalist', but it's certainly divided opinion around these parts. When the old bus depot and baths at Kingsway were earmarked for demolition, they quickly gained listed status and were saved.... by a giant Weetabix

 

[Piemaster]

Greenham Common nuclear bunkers (used in the new star wars film and also a very eery place to walk / cycle round although you cannot access the actual bunkers)

That scene did scream 'nuclear bunker' to me, but I didn't get round to finding out exactly where, but as a lot was made in the UK it doesn't surprise me.
The X-wing attack where they fly in over the water is the Lake District, theres a guy who has found the locations, with a few bits of background added/taken away to disguise and made a short comparison film of it.

 

[Dave 123]

The sculptured facade of Leeds University's Mechanical Engineering dept now has a grade II listing. I never valued the aesthetics of the portal for the three years that I used it on an almost daily basis. I was far more interested in the Rolls Royce jet engine that was plinth mounted inside and whose fan could be rotated with the force applied by one finger.

I saw the picture of this on the BBC website a few days back. It looks really impressive, but the siting of the bus stop could have been a bit better aesthetically.

 

[Piemaster]

I thought the bus stop looked out of place too. Something that complemented rather than looking like the cheapest option in the bus stop catalogue. A quick google reveals the Soviets seem to like their bus stops. Must be something brutalist to fit in.

 

[slowmotion]

Have we done this little stinker yet? Stirling and Gowan's University of Leicester Engineering Building. Oh dear, oh dear.

EDIT: they are just about to hose £19.5 million in order to fix the "iconic" glazing in the foreground. I can't help feeling that a few grand spent on RDX might be a better investment, but hey, I'm a Philistine.

 

[robjh]

What about a brutalised brutalist building?

I give you the Ministry of Defense building in Belgrade bearing the scars of Nato's Cruise missiles. A similar building over the road from this had an 'entry wound' that took out the main entrance. The postal service couldn't have been more accurate with the delivery. It's a jaw dropping sight and I marvelled at the lack of collateral damage to the surrounding buildings.

Belgrade is a pretty depressing place if you disregard the main shopping mall and restaurant zone.

Well, if we're bringing ex-Yugoslavia into it, then I give you New Sarajevo :

complete with shelling damage from the siege in the mid-1990s.

 

[Gravity Aided]

View attachment 116935 Have we done this little stinker yet? Stirling and Gowan's University of Leicester Engineering Building. Oh dear, oh dear.

don't forget the Attenborough Building, late of the Paternoster thread and this one as well, I think by your own post...

 

[StuAff]

The Tricorn (yes, I know it's been mentioned before). As it's no longer there. The best kind of eyesore, an invisible one.

 

[perplexed]

An electricity sub-station in Sheffield...

 

[summerdays]

An electricity sub-station in Sheffield...

I prefer the night time view!

 

[flatflr]

Here's one from Moscow, locally called The Ship..

 

[pplpilot]

Birmingham Central Library being demolished as we speak...

 

[pplpilot]

This was the original central library demolished to make way for that ^ Manzoni has a lot to answer for...

 

[subaqua]

is the "camberwell submarine" brutalist ?

 

[slowmotion]

Here's one from Moscow, locally called The Ship.. View attachment 116986

I find all those teeth a bit unsettling.