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.
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.
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)
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.
Multi-storey car park, Noisy-le-Grand, Jacques Kalisz and Roger Salem, 1977 (photograph: Nigel Green)
Cité Rateau, Atelier Renaudie, 1984 (photograph: Nigel Green)
Brutalist Paris, Robin Wilson, photographs by Nigel Green, Blue Crow Media, £24, published 1 March 2023
Also available to pre-order at Waterstones.com
-
Glenn Sestig brings his fashion-infused design to a French Riviera flagshipThe Belgian architect is the creative force behind the modern-meets-Mediterranean design of shoe label Morobé’s new store in Saint-Tropez
-
Stay in a pastel-hued Puglian palazzo as it starts a new chapterA haven for the design-minded, Palazzo Daniele reopens following a thoughtful restoration by Milan-based Studio Palomba Serafini
-
‘As an artist, I’ve never felt more useful than now’: Steve McQueen on his monumental film screening in AmsterdamThe film director on why now felt like the right time to screen a previously unseen 34-hour version of his 2023 documentary ‘Occupied City’, on the façade of the Rijksmuseum
-
A new Tadao Ando monograph unveils the creative process guiding the architect's practiceNew monograph ‘Tadao Ando. Sketches, Drawings, and Architecture’ by Taschen charts decades of creative work by the Japanese modernist master
-
‘Landscape architecture is the queen of science’: Emanuele Coccia in conversation with Bas SmetsItalian philosopher Emanuele Coccia meets Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets to discuss nature, cities and ‘biospheric thinking’
-
An apartment is for sale within Cité Radieuse, Le Corbusier’s iconic brutalist landmarkOnce a radical experiment in urban living, Cité Radieuse remains a beacon of brutalist architecture. Now, a coveted duplex within its walls has come on the market
-
A Tokyo home’s mysterious, brutalist façade hides a secret urban retreatDesigned by Apollo Architects, Tokyo home Stealth House evokes the feeling of a secluded resort, packaged up neatly into a private residence
-
A brutalist mosque explores light and spirituality in tropical KeralaThis brutalist mosque by studio Common Ground explores concrete forms and top light as a symbol of spirituality in tropical, southern India
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthWallpaper* has spotlighted an array of remarkable architecture in the past month – from a pink desert home to structures that appears to float above the ground. These are the houses and buildings that most captured our attention in August 2025
