The Scotsman

New Brutalism was invented in 1954 to describe the post-war style of Le Corbusier and his British imitators. The façades of Le Corbusier's inter-war buildings, such as the Villa Savoye, comprise glass and smooth white concrete, appropriate for the streamlined "machines for living in", as he described his houses. Post-1945, he opted for a more organic aesthetic, with chunky architectural forms, usually constructed in "béton brut" (hence Brutalism), which means raw concrete in French and gives an elemental quality. No attempts were made to remove irregularities or impressions of timber graining left by the formwork in which it was cast.