A cynic might claim that, beyond an interesting design, there is nothing new in a Gus Wüstermann all-concrete medium-rise affordable housing project in Zurich, Switzerland.
The cement is long dry on the all-concrete building style used for so-called brutalist architecture. From about 1950 to 1975 it graced(?) everything from inexpensive university buildings, to city halls, to affordable social/public housing — both medium and high rise. The ‘multi-story parking garage’ finish of raw concrete walls and floors have been admired? tolerated? hated? for decades now.
Recently, it has become fashionable to disparage brutalist architecture for various reasons — the most astonishing being a UK prime minister who proposed that the brutalist architectural style has been responsible for the failure of high rise social housing over the last few decades. (Presumably the residents were turned brutal by their surroundings. A little like blaming the style of the Palace of Versailles for French King Louis XIV’s leadership failures?) For more on ‘bad’ brutalism, try: Brutalism: The Demise Of The High Rise Live-in Parking Garage?
Brutalist architecture has suffered another recent blow. The ‘green’ movement has noted 5% of greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change come from the concrete industry, the third largest manmade source behind transportation and energy production.
Should concrete be demonized as a building material? The answer remains unclear. From an emissions standpoint, is the concrete construction significantly worse than other building methods? Or are its greenhouse emissions due to the enormous popularity and use of concrete as a building material worldwide? There are no definitive answers.
So much to ponder when exploring the somewhat more polished concrete interiors of a . . . neo-brutalist? project. Read and enjoy more, hopefully without too much guilt, in Dezeen: Gus Wüstemann creates affordable apartment block almost entirely from concrete
