{"id":64505,"date":"2025-10-07T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T05:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/64505\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T05:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T05:18:09","slug":"celebrate-the-joys-of-brutal-scotland-with-a-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/64505\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate the joys of ‘Brutal Scotland’ with a new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author Simon Phipps<\/a> is a man obsessed. An artist, sculptor and photographer, he is also at the vanguard of brutalist architecture<\/a>\u2019s evolution from cultural b\u00eate noire to the kind of passionate obsession that smart young people put on their dating profiles. His exploration has, so far, spanned the course of no less than seven books: Finding Brutalism<\/a>, Brutal London<\/a>, Concrete Poetry<\/a>, Brutal North, Brutal Outer London<\/a>, Brutal Wales Cymru Friwtalaidd,<\/a> and now Brutal Scotland.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Brutal\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

\n

\"A\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

Flick through the pages of ‘Brutal Scotland’<\/p>\n

Throughout all these tomes, Phipps has turned his often unsparing lens on the architectural heavyweights of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, finding raw beauty in their monumentality, as well as social optimism, progressive politics and the vanishing art of the abstract and obtuse in public life.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Dollan\n<\/p>\n

Dollan Aqua Centre, East Kilbride, 1963-65, Alexander Buchanan Campbell<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Phipps \/ Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

\n

\"McCance\n<\/p>\n

McCance Building, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 1962\u201363, Covell Matthews & Partners<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Phipps \/ Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

In his latest book, published by Duckworth Press<\/a>, Phipps has turned his attention to Scotland\u2019s rich and often maligned trove of Brutalist structures, or should we say, the ones that have survived demolition. In all, there are over 160 buildings in the new book, from well-known structures in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to the more obscure and overlooked, from megastructures to modest community centres.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Clydesdale\n<\/p>\n

Clydesdale Bank (now Virgin Money), Kilmarnock, 1975-76, Hay, Steel & Partners<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Phipps, Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

\n

\"Gordon\n<\/p>\n

Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre (previously George Square Theatre), University of Edinburgh, 1965\u201370, Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners (RMJM)<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Phipps \/ Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

Some of these buildings are visibly neglected, others have been repurposed and a happy few are protected and cherished. Not all will survive, although buildings like Gillespie, Kidd & Coia\u2019s St Peter\u2019s Seminary near Cardross (1959\u201366) look set to remain as slowly decaying ruins. Overall, Phipps\u2019s work performs a vital service, giving an overlooked architectural style a much-needed boost \u2013 some of them have never looked so good.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Woodside,\n<\/p>\n

Woodside, Glasgow, 1970-74, Boswell, Mitchell & Johnston<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Phipps \/ Duckworth Books)<\/p>\n

Brutal Scotland, Simon Phipps, \u00a330, DuckworthBooks.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author Simon Phipps is a man obsessed. An artist, sculptor and photographer, he is also at the vanguard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-64505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}