Top 13 Brutalist buildings (that I’ve visited)

Spiral staircase on the Alexandra Road Estate

The recent printing of my Alton Estate book has got me reminiscing about Brutalist buildings in general and I realise I’ve either lived in, next to or visited a fair few. Regardless of Brutalism’s new-found hipness, opinion of the post-war style still polarizes people and many of the buildings have been demolished in recent years, including two on this list. Many more are in disrepair.

Despite their reputation as either 1960s sink estates in London, monstrous blocks of flats in Russia or Yugoslavian battle monuments (known as spomeniks), Brutalist buildings were built worldwide over many decades, as this list goes to show (though to be fair, there are quite a few London council estates listed). There are many great Brutalist examples in Europe and in the Americas; I’ve included a recent one from Lima, Peru. I happened to pass by the building just before it was awarded the RIBA International Prize in 2016, where it was described as a ‘modern day Machu Picchu’. I hadn’t heard of it but it caught my eye – it’s pretty hard to miss – and I took a quick snap of it.