Celebrating our brutalist buildings
Architecture and planning student and CHAP member Elliott Sargent is one of 14 exhibitors contributing to Brutal Bristol, a collaborative exhibition in October exploring the history of the city’s brutalist architecture.
HAVE you noticed how diverse the architecture of Downend and Emersons Green is? As well as the large-scale housing of the inter-war and post-war periods, there are traces of brutalism here in the suburbs too. The telephone exchange building in Downend, occupied by BT, is a striking example of the functional brutalist style.
Bristol has an incredibly rich architectural history and is still home to many unique buildings from the post-war period.
Take Rupert Street car park, a continuous spiralling ramp of parking and a cathedral to the motor vehicle. It was the first of its kind in the UK, with six decks of continuous parking that accommodated 550 cars. It was a true innovator in providing efficient parking at a time when the car was becoming more accessible to the public, but is soon to be demolished.
Our exhibition aims to capture buildings like this and show them in a different way, perhaps, to how they have been seen before.
The exhibition is by a collective of photographers, illustrators, and designers that have come together to celebrate this heritage.
Forming off the back of Brutal Bristol II, a collaborative zine publication by Tom Benjamin that many of the exhibitors contributed to, the exhibition aims to capture elements of the city’s brutalist heritage.
Some of this has already been consigned to history, and even more will be soon. This exhibition captures a moment in time when physical relics of this period are quickly being swept away.
The exhibition is being held in Sparks Bristol, the former M&S building in Broadmead, from October 8 to 12, and is open from 10am to 5pm each day.
If you have any memories of unique architecture in Downend and the surrounding areas, CHAP would be fascinated to hear them!
Downend Community History and Art Project (CHAP) is a not-for-profit voluntary organisation that aims to produce a community history resource and create a coherent identity for Downend and Emersons Green, built around interesting or significant places, people and events from the past.
CHAP’s website is www.downendchap.org.
You can get in touch by email at big.gin@yahoo.com or write to CHAP, 49 Overnhill Road, Downend, Bristol, BS16 5DS.