ITheBrunswick

Futurism & The A-Frame

Built between 1968 and 1972, the Brunswick is a Grade II listed concrete monument within Bloomsbury, central London. The centre was designed by Patrick Hodgkinson, which comprises a shopping district and residential build. Such as many Brutalist buildings, the Brunswick was not excluded from being written about as another modernist disaster, in which its monumental and alienating concrete infrastructure played a role in negating an individuals’ sense of reality and self-identity. Critics such as Theo Crosby in the Architectural Review described the Brunswick as an urban “megastructure, a building that is a city, rather than being merely a component in a city”. 9

Much to Hodgkinson’s dislike, the label of ‘megastructure’ was later reinforced by Reyner Banham. Banham also goes as far as referring the Brunswick to Antonio Sant ’Elia’s futurist city La Città Nuova (1914), highlighting its A-Frame structure and twinned towers at the entrances as key inspired features. (Fig.5) It is significant to note that Hodgkinson rejected Banham’s references as his intent for the Brunswick was of more traditional characteristics, therefore rejecting the statements of the Brunswick’s association to Modernism. 10

Images via Wikimedia Commons https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1kwxfmg.15