The Zepter building

[Xavier]

The Zepter building .... , I am a Slav   and routinely go back to eastern europe for family visits.
the general area looks like the other image. i feel warmth when i see old soviet block buildings. hoem. my baka  maeking me pelechinke. the sour cream cake she made me on my birthday one time . aaa it is so pleasing. every bit of modern life is overstimulating . overexcess - waste. when i look at alot of cathedrals. i hate it. it claims to stand for "god" but often stands for tourism! jesus was born in a manger , not deluxe NYC suit apartment with Gold elevator . !!! i like brutualism . its barebones. it makes no lies. it functions well. extremely well. the apartments inside are cheap- affordable. pleasent. and the construction will last longer then the nations it resides within. cheap. longlasting. but people hate it for its lack of vanity. it doesnt dressitself in lies!
designed by Mihajlo Mitrović ! finished building in 1977! remained the tallest building in Serbia and Belgrade for 42 years! until surpassed in 2021!! (fuck)
there is a cool restraunt that spins at the top ! never been to it yet- will one day!

[Dan Q]

I enjoyed the building's Wikipedia page.

Outside of Soviet regions, the other big place to see Brutalist architecture is here in the UK! With a post-WWII housing shortage and lots of bombed-out city centres to renovate, Britain engaged in huge building projects in the 1950s and 1960. Brutalism was both a practical (cheap to mass-produce, simple, functional) and aesthetic (countercultural against the Modernist architecture of the early 20th century, pro-socialist) choice for architects in the UK at that time.

A lot of the primary campus of the university where I did my first undergraduate degree has a similar feel to it. Look at this:

That angular pillar on the right is a bell tower! The concrete slab building domninating the horizon is an arts centre adjoining the primary academic library. And the whole thing is built atop angled grey steps cut into a Welsh hillside.

In their efforts to put function over form, Brutalist architectural choices like these actually brought a form and fashion all of their own.

Nowadays I live near Oxford, which was spared/missed out on a post-war Brutalist phase because Hitler liked Oxford and wanted to make it his UK capital, had he conquered Britain, and so it mostly managed to avoid getting bombed. But elsewhere in the UK, you see a lot of this kind of socialist-style brutalism, even seventy years on.

[Melooon]

We don't have a lot of great brutalist buildings here and they tend to get a pretty bad rep, but we do have the Kane Building at my old university which is'nt too bad! It was built around 1968



I believe at one point it was rated as Ireland ugliest building (at least that's what everyone said) - I really don't agree! I've always found brutilast buildings to be very comforting particularly the interiors and the way they use light, air and texture to create atmosphere. I always felt much more comfortable going to classes in the Kane building.

I took this picture of the stairs there and I still think its one of the best pictures I've ever taken 


As an honorable mention, the Glasgow School of Art library where I did my masters was also a lovely building to be in, although it does not quite come across in the pictures. I also could not find any interior pictures - I dont think its very loved, or at least its overshadowed by the Mackintosh building that is much more famous (for good reason admittedly!)



Glasgow had a few nice ones I took pictures of!


I support your efforts to go to the cool restaurant at the top of the Zepter