Brutalism-Modernism / House of Brazil

Brutalism means an architectural style of Anglo-Saxon origin that comes from modernism. This movement enjoyed great consideration between 1950 and 1970. Then it appears to have a great unpopularity: it is under this name we gathered all constructions "ugly" concrete. Le Corbusier was the origin of concrete, because he though it had a savage, primitive, and without transformation side. Brutalism buildings consist of angular geometric forms that are striking in their repetition.

Le Corbusier created a building in Paris that I can relate to this movement. The house of Brazil, in “la Cité universitaire”.

The House of Brazil was opened on 24 June 1959. Initially, its design was entrusted to the great Brazilian architect Lucio Costa. The designer appealed to his friend Le Corbusier, already author of the Swiss Foundation, to help develop the project. But it changed so profoundly the initial sketch that Lucio COSTA gave him the rights of the house.

The House of Brazil is one of the most significant architectural works of the twentieth century. It presents as a home bar five floors based on seven cranes in concrete. The concrete is treated with "beton brut", a style Corbusier used often, for which the formwork of the concrete remains ingrained on the surface. The concrete, as a result, is rough and untreated and withholds much of the grain pattern of the wood that formed it. This process makes apparent the building’s construction and craft by revealing the raw materials and formative processes that constitute the building.

Under the housing bar, separate volume installed obliquely houses the public areas, offices and apartment management. As the “House of Brazil”, the building acts as both a residence hall for Brazilian academics, students, teachers, and artists, and as a hub for Brazilian culture, by providing exhibition spaces and archival resources.