New Brutalism, Again

In January 1955, Architectural Design magazine published its first full-page article on New Brutalism. The article, coauthored by Alison and Peter Smithson and Theo Crosby, asserted that the movement could be attributed to a number of sources: a reevaluation of certain Modernist buildings of the 1920s and 30s, an interest in the work of the architectural historian Rudolf Wittkower, and a respect for traditional Japanese architecture. By focusing on the collaboration between Crosby and the Smithsons, this article highlights the importance they gave to Japanese architecture, which became for them a prism through which to reflect on Modernism and hence on their own work. The article retraces the debates between Peter Reyner Banham, the Smithsons and Crosby, in order to argue for the reintroduction of Crosby’s voice in the formulation of New Brutalism and its subsequent mutations