Concrete and Code

The use of raw materials, such as concrete, is the defining feature of Brutalist architecture. Its honesty, raw beauty, and boldness produce architecture with a soul that speaks directly to people's hearts. To embody and display the beauty of raw materials, I constructed a textured shell using white glue and newspaper, spray-printing it to look like raw concrete.

The cover is made of unaltered cardboard. The embossing gives it a rough texture, mimicking concrete. The exposed binding also demonstrates the concept of raw.

The introductory spread emphasizes the reasons for the emergence of Brutalism by telling the story of the post-war world. The ruined streets, people’s lives after the war, and the form the brutalist architecture.

Concepts of geometric shapes and raw textures are used throughout the book in the form of typography, imagery, and geometric graphic elements.

The modular typeface, numbers, are inspired by Brutalist forms. The original geometric shapes represent an honest and pure expression of Brutalist architecture.

Typography is a powerful tool for creating an atmosphere that is reminiscent of architectural structures. I created a visual narrative consistent with the geometry, balance, and roughness found in Brutalist architecture by using typography.

The book narrates stories through photos, using black and white images to reflect the post-war world. When chapter 6 reaches the part about digital technology and Brutalism’s influence on artists, colored images gradually appear in the book.

A series of images celebrates the aesthetics, raw features, and forms of Brutalist architecture.

Geometric blocks are used to build the form of a brutalist building, and the story in the book is conveyed to the audience in the form of a video.
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Brutalism is a direct response to people's needs and conditions for creating order and poetry out of chaos. It reflects a mass-produced society. Currently, the world has turned into a frenetic dance of overstimulation, enacting information overload and facing something akin to mass production. The core ideals of brutalism exist as a potential solution to this dilemma.

Architectural images and geometric blocks are the two main graphic elements throughout the book, combining two elements to express the aesthetics of concrete and the uniqueness of Brutalist architecture.