These book reviews were originally published in C20 magazine and are in date order of review.
This book includes an ‘A-Z of Brutalist Architecture’ by Jonathan Meades in which he points out that neither Sheppard Robson’s Hall of Residence in South Kensington (listed but scandalously demolished, despite a C20 Society campaign) nor any of...
This is a handy folder of leaflets about post-war churches in Greater Manchester. There is one place of worship per local authority in Greater Manchester, and three in the City of Manchester itself – 12 in total. This includes Wythenshawe, the larg...
I had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of this book, having been to Turn End with the Society in 2010. I also have the other two books about the practice: Aldington, Craig and Collinge by Alan Powers (2009) in the Society’s Twentieth Century A...
This is one of several recent books of dramatic photographs of buildings from around the world that – with a few caveats – are labelled ‘brutalist’. Chadwick, an art director and graphic designer who works in the music business, set up the Th...
Some guides to London’s architecture fit in your pocket, others answer questions arising from more serendipitous strolls. Caroline Swash plugs a gap by focusing on stained glass. Her 2001 guide 14 walks themed around stained glass offered valuable ...
Unlike Barnabas Calder’s buildings in London or Glasgow, the urbane, historic peninsula that is Boston, Massachusetts does not immediately impress as a brutalist city. Heroic makes you think again. One of the US’s great intellectual capitals and ...
Brutalism is big business in the media, with TV programmes, books and blogs of varying quality. The pioneer of the genre was perhaps Owen Hatherley, who in 2007 called for a reaction against the cosy humanism of an Alvar Aalto exhibition in favour of...
This contribution to Reaktion’s ‘Modern Architectures in History’ series will go on my bookshelf beside a handful of crucial texts on Russian architecture. It is a much needed English-language book on the subject, and a valuable source for furt...
His dates – 1662-1736 – may be way outside our period, but Nicholas Hawksmoor, best known for his six massive Portland stone churches in London, has had a profound effect on many major C20 architects. The restoration of some of Hawksmoor’s key ...
Published by a Malaysian firm in Penang, this is a welcome addition to the history of C20 architecture in South East Asia. Good as many of the buildings are, it is the story behind them, the nitty-gritty of architectural practice in another country, ...
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