In the thread about least favourite architectural styles, many people indicated their dislike of brutalism with its use of unfinished concrete structures (among other aspects).

This triggered a question in my mind:

Can we make ready-pour concrete more beautiful so that it can have a stucco or tropical / mediterranean / pastel qualities with a fine marble or polished texture so that 50 storey tall concrete buildings look more like a tall version of a cool Miami house or a Greek villa rather than drab, dour, prison-like look?

Any examples?

Any examples?

http://www.ny.com/museums/images/guggenheim-lg.jpg

Try the new residential buildings of Sao Paulo.

Kimbell Art Museum, Louis Kahn
http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/slide/ghirardo/CD3/053-CD3.jpg

Salk Institute, Louis Kahn
http://www.sandiegomag.com/hdq/spring2004/images/endquote.jpg

Scottish Parliament, Enric Miralles
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/images/latest/Images/Previews/new3E5V9259.jpg

The first two I've never had the pleasure of visiting, unfortunately. The latter I've been in many times. The concrete feels smooth as silk, it's wonderful. Another well done building in Edinburgh with concrete is the Museum of Scotland by Benson and Forsyth. The concrete there is really smooth as well, but also really pale in colour, with beautiful white stones in it for aggregate, but it doesn't really translate in photos. It's so elegant, most people don't even realise that vast bits of the interior are just bare concrete - to them, concrete can only mean roughcast covered in algae dark grey housing projects.

very peaceful structure.

Thanks for the pics. I've only been to the Salk and the Guggenheim and haven't been to the other.

Louis Kahn is probably the father of Brutalism and I do like Salk. But I have heard that he also did the Yale Library that is universally hated and that Toronto copied in a fashion in the U of T main library.

As I mentioned in my other thread about architecture styles most disliked, most of the other Brutalist structures do not have the setting or purpose that Salk did (basically creating instant blackboards everywhere for researchers to exchange ideas, mobile lab facilities, making a statement on reducing maintenance cost of the foundation grounds to concentrate funding to the research itself, and the end-of-the world to infinity setting of a cliff north of San Diego). Instead, most Brutalist stuff that I see are just gray, ugly and monstrous slabs surrounded by other buildings. I think if architects took more care in developing good Brutalist structures, then I might grow to like it.

I would like to see the pictures of Sao Paulo apartments if anyone has them.