Martin Strakoš: Brutalism in Concrete, Steel, and Brick

What did the beginnings of brutalism look like and how did the development of brutalism in concrete, steel, and brick unfold? Why is there often more written about concrete brutalism and much less about steel or brick brutalism? What form did brutalism take in the world and what form did it take in the domestic Czech environment? And what significance did the SOS Brutalism initiative have in recent years? We will focus not only on these questions but also on the beginnings of brutalism at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s in Great Britain, followed by its development in the 1950s and 1960s in a global context and the transformation of this stylistic mode of modern architecture in the Czech environment. Attention will also be paid to how current society reflects this architecture, how well examples of brutalism are being preserved as heritage, and why many buildings from that era are at risk of destruction. This will lead to an answer to the questions of why we should better understand the mentioned term and why we should better understand brutalist buildings, not only through examples of buildings from Prague, Brno, or Ostrava.