Peter Chadwick, the man behind @BrutalHouse on Twitter, has had a love affair with Brutalism since long before he knew what it was called. As a child, he was fascinated by the ICI chemical plant at Wilton, a building he described as “a hulking mass of impossibly tangled pipes and cylinders, topped off by ominous plumes of smoke, continually forced skyward via a mass of metallic chimneys.” Something about it was thrilling and scary, he says, and without knowing why, he liked it immediately. It’s an image that was also familiar to Ridley Scott, who based the visuals for the opening scenes of Blade Runner on the spires of its chimneys.

In the pages of his striking black-and-white photo book, Chadwick takes readers on a visual, international tour of concrete architecture. Sometimes monumental and ominous, sometimes ornamental and nearly psychedelic, these photos, all captured by Chadwick, explore a movement that has been equally despised and adored.

This rich, deliciously visual book is a manifesto in photographic form—not only a record of some of the world’s strangest and most beautiful concrete structures, but also a testament to the psychic power of form.

Peter Chadwick, the man behind @BrutalHouse on Twitter, has had a love affair with Brutalism since long before he knew what it was called. As a child, he was fascinated by the ICI chemical plant at Wilton, a building he described as “a hulking mass of impossibly tangled pipes and cylinders, topped off by ominous plumes of smoke, continually forced skyward via a mass of metallic chimneys.” Something about it was thrilling and scary, he says, and without knowing why, he liked it immediately. It’s an image that was also familiar to Ridley Scott, who based the visuals for the opening scenes of Blade Runner on the spires of its chimneys.

In the pages of his striking black-and-white photo book, Chadwick takes readers on a visual, international tour of concrete architecture. Sometimes monumental and ominous, sometimes ornamental and nearly psychedelic, these photos, all captured by Chadwick, explore a movement that has been equally despised and adored.

This rich, deliciously visual book is a manifesto in photographic form—not only a record of some of the world’s strangest and most beautiful concrete structures, but also a testament to the psychic power of form.