I don't know what " brutalism " is. I was a goner at the lap pool. I swim a mile every day in my pool. I meditate while I swim. The pool in this home would be so wonderful to experience.

I didn't see anything in the home that I wouldn't be able to identify with and feel " at home " with.

Thank you for posting ...c

Hey pal I was just trying to educate myself on Brutalist early today. It's funny that a place so far off "me" is so appealing. I really like the rough edges and the look of salvaged in parts. I'm going to have to look at this for a while to understand what all I like about it.

Pal, I can appreciate the beauty of the design, but it feels more like a museum to me, not a warm, cozy home. Could you live in a place that spare?

Could I? No.

I think I could live in the house but it would have more furniture and things in it.

thanks for posting this, I'm thinking they photographed it just before moving
in in order to have portfolio pictures . I can visualize it with a more lived-in look
and we did not see closet spaces or art on the walls. I think it's beautiful
and I love the materials used.

I love the materials used as well, however I would at least put a large bench in the "living room".

I can't get the slideshow to load properly...but I LOVE that cantilevered room--is it the master? I love the exterior. I would probably have "stuff" too...I like my stuff!

mjsee, it worked fine on chrome, but kept loading forever on firefox.

Very beautiful--from the corten (nicely deployed--someday before I die I want corten somewhere on the exterior of my house) to the Rorschachish book-matched marble in the shower : ). I always love the pivoting doors -- saw one just this past weekend into a shower in a 70s house -- oddly, though, the door opening *looked* wide but ended up being quite narrow once the hinge pivoted - about 1/3 the opening was on the other side of the hinge.

I think this house was underfurnished for the shoot, with the minimal amount of furniture left to give a sense of scale.

The thing about Brutalist (and Minimalist) architecture though is that it is really more about the space that is enclosed, instead of the enclosure itself. The "enclosure" itself can come into play, through the surface texture of the wall or floor, but its not really about the surface ornament like conventional rooms are, and that's probably why a lot of people don't like it.

But, the rooms in this house look pretty good empty because of the volumes they enclose. You understand that it needs more furniture to look like a house, but this is the antithesis of the typical house which has maybe one living space that looks decent empty and a bunch of drywall boxes that have no identity at all empty.

The Brutalist house I bought is a non-entity from the street (unless you really Look at it, but it doesn't really demand that you do). But the two living spaces are perfectly good looking without a stick of furniture, at least in the volumes they enclose. One bedroom looks pretty good without anything because of its relationship to the outside and two rooms look like a typical empty room. Many houses today don't have more than maybe a living room that looks even identifiable without furniture to tell you what it is and the other rooms are non-entities as well.

There was a Brutalist house in Brazil featured on Househunters International recently...I wanted it. The light and space were very cool...looked like it would be great to live in.

flyleft--Thanks for the tip about chrome...I don't run chrome but I may give IE a try. Wonder why it won't load on FF? VERY irritating!

Got it to load on IE. I want that kitchen.... That marble integrated drainboard/undermount sink/island? WANT. And this from a woman who HATES islands in kitchens. (I always catch my hip on them.) Perhaps that's because I've been in kitchens where people ADDED islands instead of designing the kitchen for them?

That house made me happy just looking at it. Thanks for the link, palimpsest!

Not my type of house, but I can appreciate the architecture like I would a piece of art.

With more 'warm' furnishings like the dining table...*swoon*

It's perfect for minamilist home/work space for an artist! When I think Spain I think Barcelona and Gaudi, but having never been to the Cantolinian Coast, I hope to see this IRL someday soon! I love the quote, "He was offered a villa; he chose a bunker." How lucky to have such choices.

Wonderful home, I could happily live there (yes, probably with a little more furniture). The space is fabulous, esp. love the windows. The kitchen is great. There is too much marble in the bathroom for my taste, that much dramatic stone may be too oppressive (brutalist?) for me. The bathroom is my only (minor) complaint though.

Pal - must brutalist always also be minimalist?

Seeing that wonderful walnut kitchen in the brutalist house makes me think - maybe I can have my brutalist corten fireplace? I know, my space can't compare, but still, a girl can dream.

I don't know if needs to be so minimalist, but it seems to be photographed that way. Also most important brutalist buildings seem to be public buildings with big empty spaces by function.

The brutalist houses around my neighborhood seem to be so on the exterior with a relatively modern, but typical 1960s interior. The only clue that they are brutalist is the fenestration, probably, and some of the elements like fireplaces. The third floor of my house is the most brutalist. The finishes and such are so typical though that the brutalism is easily camouflaged and the house ends up looking whatever vernacular (except for the windows). It also gets suppressed through renovations. Mine has two new baths. One with subway one with beadboard. Neither is well done, so they will go, at some point.

Thanks for posting this. I'm another one who likes it, but would like it more with more furnishings.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't wait to see pics of your new brutalist home! Do we have to wait until the renters move out? :)

The details in my house are pretty sixties vernacular and I think my cues to reducing some of them to something more elemental will involve studying the houses he built for individual clients rather than those for a builder as part of urban renewal.

I blue printed and greyscaled these to clarify the lines, and reduce some of the complication.

This is an open raftered room at the top of the house called the "studio" in the original plans. The slit window faces east and has bottle glass in it; the wall of glass faces west.

It was replaced with some pretty ordinary replacement windows. I am sure this needed to be done, but I would like to put something more appropriate and weathertight back. I am sure the originals looked better but performed lousy as windows. The terrace is behind a parapet and partly covered by overhanging roof. It is not apparent at the street level unless you really look.

Hi Pal,

Cool drawing. Great way to "look" at a space.

You may already know this. I work in the HVAC industry. East/west windows add the most solar gain to a space. So it will be important to get good UV control with your window replacements, especially if the architectural style would mean you would not want window coverings.

What an interesting space! I really like it. Thanks for sharing. Pal, I'm really happy you found your home.

Thanks for sharing your interesting finds! I noticed the metal dining chairs and am wondering where I could find something like that? I started a thread on a chair question, but when I saw your pictures and some interesting chairs I had to ask. Hope that's OK? Thanks, and please keep us posted.

For a similar chair I would look at Emeco.

I dislike the terms "brutalist" and "brutalism," because they were inappropriately coined decades ago from the French beton brut, meaning "raw concrete." There is nothing inherently "brutal" about forged steel or raw concrete----I like minimalist much better, as this seems more of a method than a style, one that truly captures the essence of the structure without superfluous adornment.

I LOVE the house, it is marvelous!

I never knew the origins of the term. Thanks for the etymology.

When I was looking up beton brut, Moshe Safdie and Habitat 67 came up. I was surprised at how ordinary-modern/vernacular they look on the inside.

I saw these before and I thought I remembered concrete surfaces on some of the interior. Granted, I was five--but maybe there were some that had more futuristic interiors as models.

Re: Safdie and Habitat 67 :
"I was surprised at how ordinary-modern/vernacular they look on the inside." So true!

And the original examples of beton brut seem tame now, but they set the world on fire at the time :)

I have always thought I could live in almost any kind of house, as long as it was a really well designed and executed example of the style. I would LOVE to have a small and beautiful minimalist home with lots of glass, concrete and steel. The style appeals more to me the older I get.

Tom Kundig (Olson Sundberg Kundig) is a local architect (Seattle) and I have been watching his work years. I actually don't think his work is that of 70s concrete "Brutalism". I think it is minimalism with 'industrial' in flavor with lots of cor ten steel and exposed steel I-beams that he uses. The steel windows are reminiscent of industrial buildings of the by gone era, IMHO.

I am always looking for a house that he may have done 20 years ago. Alas, I can only dream.

FWIW

http://seattlecondos.ewingandclark.com/2011/05/art-stable-in-lake-union.html

http://www.stroupecondoblog.com/2008/03/eleven-eleven-east-pike-1111-e-pike-st-seattle-wa-98122/