‘Brutalist Paris’ is a book that lays bare the legacy of the city’s concrete architecture

Architectural cartographer Blue Crow Media launches ‘Brutalist Paris’, its first book, a photographic study of the French capital’s surviving brutalist treasures and concrete impasses

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Brutalist Paris, Blue Crow Media
(Image credit: Blue Crow Media)

The photography and essays in Brutalist Paris are underpinned by five years of research into modernist architecture in the French metropolis; they celebrate the city's brutalist architecture, and also make up the first, expansive architecture book from Black Crow Media, long-time specialist in concrete cartography. 

With photography by Dr Nigel Green of Photolanguage and words by Bartlett associate professor Dr Robin Wilson, Brutalist Paris is very far from being a light-hearted skim over the uncompromising aesthetics of the city’s post-war concrete architecture. Instead, it puts the spotlight on 50 key buildings, connecting them with seven academic essays that look deep into French culture’s relationship with architecture, modernity, and social change. 

Architectural photography inside the book Brutalist Paris, Blue Crow Media

(Image credit: Blue Crow Media)

Inside Brutalist Paris

Brutalism will always be controversial, despite the uptick in interest driven almost entirely by this architecture’s undeniable aesthetic presence. Paris has many icons of the genre, including important works by Oscar Niemeyer’s abstract Communist Party Headquarters (1968-80), Lucio Costa and Le Corbusier’s Maison du Brésil (1959), and Harry Seidler’s Australian embassy of 1978, designed with Marcel Breuer and Pier Luigi Nervi, all represented here.

Architectural photography on pages inside the book Brutalist Paris, Blue Crow Media

(Image credit: Blue Crow Media)

Arguably, such works were underpinned by France’s much stronger modernist – and socialist – tradition. The flipside was the uncompromising mass housing projects that sprang up in the suburbs, intended as epic and soul-stirring, but resulting as forbidding and bleak. The inclusion of the occasional ruin highlights the dichotomy of raw concrete, forever fated to carry strong opinions, whether positive or negative.

Ivry-Cité du Parc and the Albert Einstein School, Jean Renaudie, Nina Schuch and Serge Renaudie, 1982-83 (photograph: Nigel Green)

Ivry-Cité du Parc and the Albert Einstein School, Jean Renaudie, Nina Schuch and Serge Renaudie, 1982-83 (photograph: Nigel Green)

(Image credit: Blue Crow Media)

Blue Crow Media’s maps are a concrete-lover’s dream, with over 50 published since 2017. These include explorations of Berlin, Montreal, Boston, Los Angeles, Prague and its recent study of modern Cambridge architecture. We welcome its shift into books – and happily, the end papers still contain a map.

Brutalist Paris, Blue Crow Media

Multi-storey car park, Noisy-le-Grand, Jacques Kalisz and Roger Salem, 1977 (photograph: Nigel Green)

(Image credit: Blue Crow Media)

Brutalist Paris, Blue Crow Media

Cité Rateau, Atelier Renaudie, 1984 (photograph: Nigel Green)

(Image credit: Blue Crow Media)

Brutalist Paris, Robin Wilson, photographs by Nigel Green, Blue Crow Media, £24, published 1 March 2023

BlueCrowMedia.com

Also available to pre-order at Waterstones.com

Jonathan Bell

Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.