{"product_id":"raw-concrete-a-field-guide-to-british-brutalism-9780434022441","title":"Raw Concrete: A Field Guide to British Brutalism","description":"\u003cp\u003eA unique guide to architecture  and a radical  personal and entertaining appraisal of eight of Britains most controversial buildings. Bton brut or raw concrete was a term coined by Le Corbusier and appropriated by two young British architects in the 1950s to describe a new kind of building: austere  unadorned  monolithic  confrontational and constructed almost entirely in concrete. Brutalist architecture blossomed in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century  with planners favouring its functionality and low costs for social housing projects  government buildings and shopping centres. But as the school spread  so its reputation foundered  with Brutalism quickly becoming synonymous with crime  economic deprivation and inner-city decay. In the twenty-first century  Brutalist buildings are just as prominent  and just as pilloried -- seen by many as spiky survivors of the sixties. But there is another side to Brutalism  one of artistic vision  political idealism and painstaking attention to detail: a school of architecture to celebrate  not destroy. Raw Concrete provides a groundbreaking history of the heavy-concrete architecture of post-war Britain  as well as a personal and illuminating guide to eight pivotal Brutalist buildings. Beginning in a tiny concrete hermitage on the remote north Scottish coast  and ending up backstage at the National Theatre  Raw Concrete takes us on a wide-ranging journey through Britain over the past sixty years  stopping to examine how these buildings were made -- from commission to construction -- why they have been so hated  and why they should be loved.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44938357407797,"sku":"ByrdShop_0434022446","price":318.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780434022441.jpg?v=1791197380","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/raw-concrete-a-field-guide-to-british-brutalism-9780434022441","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}