Béton Brut: An Architectural Primer

Submitted by Eternity on Sun, 03/22/2009 - 20:40.

Auguste Perret (1874 – 1954) was a French architect who specialized in reinforced concrete construction, known as Béton Brut. Meaning ‘raw concrete”, Béton Brut aka Brutalism, is an architectural style that was once much beloved. This was especially true in the postwar age, at a time when world leaders, governments and institutions held high hopes for a better life; rebuilding, aspiring to create more egalitarian societies that were also uniform. And having harnessed the industrial revolution, with the emergence of easy to use building materials, the pragmatic functionality of low-cost, structurally sound pre-cast concrete became a staple for city planning, civic revitalization, architecture. Most all the modernist used it, with Le Courbusier, who had been formerly been employed by Mr. Perret, referring to Béton Brut as his “choice material.”  Read More.

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Thank you for sharing this here. REALNEODOCOMOMO!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 03/22/2009 - 21:48.

I know a bunch of people from Northeast Ohio and REALNEO are following your struggle to save the Atlanta Breuer Library and signed your petition, so we appreciate your updates and insight... keep us posted.

There are many people here interested in documenting and preserving modern srtuctures in our region, so http://www.docomomo.com/ sounds like a great initiative for us... is there an active chapter in Atlanta?

Anyone on REALNEO working with DOCOMOMO?

There is now - REALNEODOCOMOMO

Disrupt IT

Saving our national sites of significance

Submitted by Eternity on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 09:13.

To Norm,

Yes, there is a local chapter of DOCOMOMO here in Georgia [Atlanta].  Recently they were co-sponsors to an educational presentation about the Bauhaus, Modernism and the International Style, of which Cleveland's very own Ameritrust Tower is attributed to.  That presentation was held at the auditorium within our Atlanta Breuer [Béton Brut] building, The Central Library.  And while all of us have our own localized directives -- causes -- the issue of national heritage as it relates to architecture and civic sites, is something that  affects us all, uniformly.    So, I'm grateful for REALNEO and other progressive outlets that highlight these issues.