Information - Simon Phipps

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SIAN LEWIS recommends a unique book of photography that invites greater appreciation of our urban and industrial landscapes

Sian Lewis - Morning Star 27 July 2024

The haunting images of some of Wales’ most incredible buildings and structures

A remarkable photographic journey to some of the most striking buildings you might not have noticed or even knew existed

Joanne Ridout - Wales Online 6 May 2024

Jennifer Greitschus in conversation with Simon Phipps and Tom Bridges

Head of Cultural Heritage and Exhibitions at Arup, Jennifer Greitschus will interview artist Simon Phipps about his career to date on the occasion of his exhibition West Yorkshire Photographs 2023. Together with Tom Bridges, Arup’s Leeds Office Leader, they will explore some of the key architectural landmarks captured in Phipps' photography, and the extraordinary history that gives West Yorkshire its distinct character.
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Thursday 2 May 2024, 18:00 – 20:00
RSVP: phase2@arup.com
Arup, 12 Wellington Place, Leeds LS1 4AP

Simon Phipps’ new book showcases the bold and often overlooked legacy of brutalist architecture in Wales

Phipps’ photographic technique (perhaps informed by his background in sculpture) is well suited to its subject. The black and white digital photographs focus on imageability, structural tectonics, materiality and surface texture, and underline the defiant boldness of the genre. The medium and technique favours and promotes an abstracted vision befitting brutalism.

Wayne Forster - Building Design 18 April 2024

Nuclear reactor or medieval castle? Brutal Welsh architecture – in pictures

A new title in Simon Phipps’ bestselling brutalist series, this photographic exploration of Wales features over 60 extraordinary buildings, including many lesser-known examples of modernist architecture.

The Guardian 10 April 2024

Brutal Wales Cymru Friwtalaidd – a major photographic survey of modernist Wales

From the new town of Cwmbran, the immense Trostre Steelworks, the iconic George Street Bridge of Newport to smaller municipal projects such as Theatr Ardudwy in Harlech and libraries and schools across the land, Simon Phipps offers us an inspiring look at an era of architectural ambition and change in his latest book – Brutal Wales Cymry Friwtalaidd.

Stephen Price - Nation Cymru 04 April 2024

Ten brutalist Welsh buildings with "sculptural qualities"

A crematorium clad in ribbed concrete and a geometric university bell tower feature in this roundup of 10 brutalist buildings photographed by Simon Phipps for his Brutal Wales book.

Phipps' visual exploration of modernism in Wales follows six other publications by the London-based artist capturing post-war architecture in Britain, including Brutal North and Brutal London.

Kate Donaldson - Dezeen 3 April 2024

Urban Views

For several years, Phipps has been chronicling overlooked sites. After his previous titles Brutal London (2016), Finding Brutalism (2017), Concrete Poetry (2018) and Brutal North (2020), Brutal Wales is the newest addition to Phipps’ black and white documentary series. The publication collates images of over 60 notable, as well as many lesser-known, structures. As Grindrod says: “In their bold imagination and visionary execution [these buildings] help connect us to a period in our history that is all too easily overlooked and neglected – the recent past.”

Fruzsina Vida - Aesthetica 17 March 2024

Time, space and shape: Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, Snowdonia

Taken offline in 1991, Trawsfynydd nuclear power station in Snowdonia National Park was designed by Sir Basil Spence and opened in 1968. Nestled in an undulating landscape designed by Sylvia Crowe against the drama of the foothills behind, the plant’s two, keep-like concrete reactor halls retain a brooding magnificence.

Jan-Carlos Kucharek - Riba Journal 28 February 2024

West Yorkshire Photographs 2023

In 2023 I was commissioned by Arup to research and photograph Arup projects across the West Yorkshire region for an exhibition in the new Leeds office. The works that were selected for exhibtion reflect not only the diverse architectural legacy of the region but the rich history that was integral to its development. The subjects range from a late 18th century flax mill, Rose Wharf, (Arup's former office) to Leeds University's Sir William Bragg building of 2021 via the 'great white heat of technology' amplified by Emley Moor mast; the Egyptian splendour of Holbeck's Temple Works; Bradford's City Hall in all its Venetian Gothic flamboyance overlooking City Park; the sculptural minimalism of The Hepworth Wakefield and the strikingly faceted structure of Headingley's Carnegie Pavilion. Most of the photographs included in the project fall outside of my usual scope but nonetheless they display the integrity and vision that I find most compelling in architecture.

Many thanks to Tom Bridges, director of Arup Leeds and Jennifer Greitschus, curator and head of exhibitions at Arup. Design: Sarah Bushnell

Flick through ‘Brutal Wales’, a book celebrating concrete architecture

Brutal Wales is a treat – both for lovers of brutalist architecture and concrete buildings, but also for history and photography enthusiasts, as it offers an indulgent journey through a series of established and lesser-known Welsh gems of the particular genre. All are seen through the lens of accomplished photographer Simon Phipps, who explored Welsh modernist architecture through a total of 60 case studies, found in this new book by September Publishing.

Ellie Stathaki - Wallpaper 20 January 2024

BRUTAL WALES / CYMRU FRIWTALAIDD

BRUTAL WALES / CYMRU FRIWTALAIDD will be published on April 4, 2024. The book features photography of over 60 sites, buildings and structures across Wales accompanied by essays in both English and Welsh by John Grindrod and Mark Durden.

Exhibition: Small Office, Los Angeles

Exhibition: Small Office, Los Angeles

12th January | February 29th

Small Office, 3465 Casitas Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90039

In Case You Missed It

An exhibition responding to the closure and imminent demolition of Manchester's much loved modernist campus - UMIST.

03.11.23 - 24.12.23

Twenty-six artists have come together to celebrate the former UMIST Campus.

'In Case You Missed It' is a collection of creative responses to a Manchester institution: The view from an artist's first studio, the morning cut through on the way to work, a favourite building captured in spray-paint, an inspiration for utopian visions, a beloved and constant backdrop to the Mancunian Way. These personal stories tell us about UMIST's impact just as vividly as the clean lines that make up it's facades and stand as a celebration to a place that in all likelihood will only exist as a memory in the future.

Exhibition concieved by Gemma Parker.

Exhibiting artists:

Anna Novitzky, Benjamin Carter, Bill Ayres, Christine A Lawley, DR.ME, Freya Thomson, Helen Angell, Huren Marsh, Jen Orpin, John Rooney, Liam Spencer, Lisa Robinson, Lucie Holzer, Mandy Payne, Michael Garaway, Nick Jordan, Peter Hatton, Tea, Peter James Houghton, Plyconic, Richard Aldred, Sarah Hardacre, Second Breakfast Club, Shirley Hampton, Simon Phipps, Tony Bolton.

the modernist
58 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ
11am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday

LCAD/PT-66

LCAD/PT-66

2 colour screen print on Somerset Satin White 410 gsm paper, A2 edition: 50

Printed by Jealous Print Studio, LCAD/PT-66 is available at shop.simonphipps.co.uk

The Modernist Book Fair

As part of the London Design Festival Vitsœ is delighted to host ‘The Modernist Book Fair’, a two-day event and an evening of talks featuring some of the best independent publishers in the field of modernist and brutalist architecture, curated by our friends from ‘the modernist’, a quarterly magazine dedicated to modernist architecture and design.

22 Sept 10:00—17:00
22 Sept 18:30—20:30
23 Sept 10:00—17:00

Vitsœ
21 Marylebone Lane
London
W1U 2NG

Architecture Book of the Year Award

Brutal Outer London has been shortlisted for the inaugural Architecture Book of the Year Award, organised by the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects and the Temple Bar Trust, in association with the World Architecture Festival.

BOOK REVIEW | Brutal Outer London

The book awakens a curiosity in the subject in a most satisfying way by celebrating and cataloguing an oft-derided and omnipresent architectural style.

Mark Prizeman - The London Society

Superstore Wilderness

From the makers of The Ride Journal and North London Dirt, Superstore Wilderness is a new print magazine dedicated to the exploration and adventures in our edgelands.

A collection of essays, photography and design celebrating the liminal spaces between urban sprawl and nature, examining how humans interact with these spaces by bike and by foot.

Exhibition: Rapha, 85 Brewer St, London March 4 - 24

Profits from Superstore Wilderness will go to the following local charities:

→ Hackney Food Bank
→ E5 Children and Baby bank
→ The Salvation Army Food Bank
→ Hackney Quest Community group

Seeing North Edinburgh through the eyes of the Internet

Join us for an event hosted by the Data Civics team at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Photographer Simon Phipps and Darren Umney will talk with Liz McFall, Kath Bassett and Vassilis Galanos about their recent work exploring North Edinburgh through the ‘eyes’ of internet platforms including Instagram, Twitter, Google Earth, street photography and community archive.

Saturday 11 February, 2:00pm at Edinburgh City Art Centre

THE BRUTAL TRUTH

From housing estates and shopping centres to libraries and universities, brutalist architecture was central to Britain’s post-war rebuild, says Simon Phipps. He talks to Steve Pill about his latest book, Brutal Outer London.

Black+White Photography Issue 272

BOOK REVIEW | Brutal Outer London

From Harrow and Croydon to Waltham Forest, Thamesmead, Wood Green and Willesden, the modernist ambition, scale and structure of these buildings are starkly rendered in his acclaimed photographs. Phipps offers us a chance to look at these everyday buildings in residential, retail and leisure hubs again and appreciate the civic optimism and bold architecture of the '60s and '70s.

Julia Pasarón - I-M Magazine Dec 2022

Another Brick In The Wall

Softcover: 32 pages
Dimensions: 378 x 289 mm
Publisher: Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery (23 Nov. 2022)
ISBN-13 978-1-874331-67-4

Another Brick In The Wall

Another Brick In The Wall at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, presented in collaboration with Arup Phase 2, explores the progressive architecture of the mid-twentieth century at University of Leeds and beyond.

November 23, 2022 - March 25, 2023

Another Brick In The Wall

A new exhibition at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, presented in collaboration with Arup Phase 2, explores the progressive architecture of the mid-twentieth century at University of Leeds and beyond.

Another Brick in the Wall is guest curated by Simon Phipps, renowned architectural photographer, and Darren Umney, an independent writer and researcher. The exhibition highlights the postwar period where universities across the UK radically developed their campuses and examines this critical stage in the development of modern Britain through the lens of architecture.

Opening on Wednesday 23 November, the exhibition juxtaposes Simon Phipps’ striking architectural photography with an eclectic selection of images and objects from published and archival materials from the period. November 23 - March 25, 2023

Brutal Outer London - JOSEPH

Ahead of the launch of his new book, Brutal Outer London, we looked at the work of Simon Phipps, renowned photographer of post-war modernist architecture, art and design. Following on from his iconic first book Brutal London, this sequel expands his survey beyond London's inner zones through to the outer perimeters of London, including Brunel University lecture theatre; the location of JOSEPH Autumn winter campaign. Simon Phipps' photographs of Greater London's modernist architecture explores the form and beauty of these post-war buildings.

Brutal Outer London

Hardcover: 240 pages
Dimensions: 200 x 150 mm
Publisher: September Publishing (27 Oct. 2022)
ISBN: 9781914613166

Declaration - continues

Exhibition - They Come. They Sit. They Go.

Cedric Christie
Phillip King
Simon Phipps

26/03/22-07/05/22

Photographs: Paul Tucker

New NFT collection: Brutal London

Barbican-02-#d86c2a

Declaration

Exhibition - They Come. They Sit. They Go.

Cedric Christie
Phillip King
Simon Phipps

26/03/22-16/04/22

The Granton Civicscope

CIVICSCOPE uses photographic, digital and archival resources to witness the city, its architectures and its voices evolve through time and space. It combines planning documents, maps and community archive with original photographic and photorealistic mapping in a multi-perspectival panoramic exhibition of the Granton Waterfront Redevelopment Area in North Edinburgh. Structured as a bi-directional leporello, Civicscope unfolds horizontally and vertically, in a tour of archival, virtual, idealised and community views of the area. The result is a kind of survey that references the precepts of the two best known Edinburgh town planners, Patrick Abercrombie and Patrick Geddes and recognises the challenges and contradictions of modern planning and consultation methods.

Civicscope is a non-commercial academic project created by Simon Phipps and Darren Umney, in collaboration with Liz McFall. The work is part of the Edinburgh Futures Institute Data Civics Programme with funding from the University of Edinburgh. Its production was wholly defined by the Covid19 pandemic and what imagery and sources were accessible and available from online sources.

Finding Brutalism in Great Britain

In 2017 I had an exhibition, Finding Brutalism, at the Museum im Bellpark in Kriens, Switzerland. A very splendid book of the same title was published alongside the exhibition by Park Books. As a parallel event a lecture series was organised as a collaboration between Museum im Bellpark and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. I took part in Finding Brutalism in Great Britain alongside a very notable panel comprising of Irina Davidovici, Adrian Forty, Jonathan Sergison and Stanislaus von Moos. The other two lectures focused on Brutalism in Africa and Yugoslavia. I have just discovered that the lecture series has been made available on youtube and is all very interesting I can assure you.

WOMERSLEY - Zembla Gallery

WOMERSLEY - an exhibition celebrating the work of modernist architect Peter Womersley at the Zembla Gallery, Hawick, Scottish Borders
⁣
Angela Bell⁣
Felicity Bristow⁣
Ellie Edmondson⁣
Neil Gillespie⁣
Andrew Miller⁣
Jim Pattison⁣
Simon Phipps⁣
Meg Shirayama⁣
Paul Stallan⁣
Karlyn Sutherland ⁣
Ally Wallace⁣
Rhona Warwick Paterson⁣

7 August - 28 August 2021

Beauty in Brutalism

Interview by Ellie M Brown

Simon has seen for himself how the utopian ideals of the post-war vision are easily undone. His black and white photographs of brutalist Britain capture a period of optimism and community, now buried under almost half a century of privatisation and individualism. From his images of Ernö Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower in London, standing tall, defiant and proud, to the swooping curvature of Preston Bus Station, he brings aesthetic dignity to an architectural period that was lambasted almost as soon as the concrete set.

War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights

Exhibition: Institute of Contemporary Arts

7 July – 26 September 2021

Very pleased to have photographs included in War Inna Babylon, an exhibition curated by London-based racial advocacy and community organisation, Tottenham Rights, together with independent curators Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker.

Brutal North: An Exploration of Brutalist Buildings in the North of England - Leeds Civic Trust

An online panel discussion exploring and celebrating buildings from the second half of the 20th Century across the north of England - 3 June 2021

This event is jointly hosted by Leeds Civic Trust, Bradford Civic Society and Wakfield Civic Society.

Brutal North

Thursday 15 April 2021 at 18.30 Presented by Simon Phipps with Matthew Steele, Dr Christina Malathouni and Catherine Croft

Beauty in Brutalist

Across Yorkshire, a bold architectural legacy can be found that continues to prompt debate about its merits and message decades since some of the most recognisable examples appeared

Richard Blackledge - Yorkshire Post

My C20 Detail

Contributor
Softcover: 116 pages
Size: 148 x 148 mm
Publisher : Twentieth Century Society, Dec 2020
ISBN: 9791838298005

Robust defence of ‘brutalism’

SIMON PHIPPS’S Brutal North is a stupendous photographic record of the so-called brutalist architecture of northern England. In it, his instinct for composition and employment of sharp viewing angles captures the spirit of some exquisite buildings.

MICHAL BONCZA - Morning Star

Brutal North on Showcase

TRT World's flagship arts and culture program. Interview with Elif Bereketli 20/11/20

Front Row BBC Radio 4

Interview with Tom Sutcliffe 13/11/20

Concrete jungle: the brutalist buildings of northern England – in pictures

A new book captures the most aspirational and enlightened architecture of the north’s postwar years – featuring competitive church building and an endless supply of reinforced concrete

The Guardian

New Brutalism Now

Simon Phipps in conversation with Jennifer Greitschuss

Brutal North: Post-War Modernist Architecture in the North of England

Hardcover: 208 pages
Size: 141 x 198 mm
Publisher : September Publishing (29 Oct. 2020)
ISBN-10: 1912836157

Ziggurat

Ziggurat drawings, an ongoing series, ink on 220gsm paper, size: 21 x 29.7 cm.

Trinity Square Car Park

Screen print on aluminium, 50 x 50 cm. Edition: 25. Available from twentytwentyone

For The People

For The People : The democratisation of modernist design

A day of talks: Saturday 9th November 2019

Leaf 113-115 Portland Street Manchester M1 6DW

We have invited a range of speakers, from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, to join us to have a day long series of talks looking at how modernist design has found its way into our every day lives. From monumental concrete public sculpture through to tea spoons, from entire new towns down to litter bins, the twentieth century saw modernism go from an obscure and elitist theoretical practise into being an aspect of almost all our lives.

The Modernist: issue 32 INVISIBLE

October 2, 2019

Although much of the seductiveness of modernism relates to its aesthetic qualities, this issue looks beyond the immediately evident in celebration of aspects which are undocumented, obscured, lost, overlooked and ephemeral.

Screen Print

Medium: 2 Colour Screen Print on Somerset Satin White 300gsm Paper
Edges: Cut
Year: 2019
Edition: 100
Size: 50.5 x 38.5cm

Published by Jealous Print Editions

Poems in steel and concrete: postwar civic art

Simon Phipps, author of Concrete Poetry: Postwar Modernist Public Art, takes us on a tour of some of the UK’s most important publicly owned artworks.

The Guardian

simon_phipps_maccarter_abstract_wall_relief_glasgow_01

Photo Essay: Simon Phipps' 'Concrete Poetry: Post-War Modernist Public Art'

Simon’s black and white images of Brutalist and post-war buildings in the UK are defined by their striking compositions in which the raw architectural forms of his subjects are laid bare.

The Modern House

The postwar public art that became a symbol of the British modernist dream

For his latest book, Concrete Poetry, Phipps has diverted his discerning lens towards prominent postwar public art and sculpture across the UK... Phipps has compiled yet another weighty tome deeper than aesthetics and broader than brutalism.

Harriet Lloyd-Smith - Wallpaper

Concrete Poetry: Exploring Britain’s post-war public art. Endangered and unsung

Brutalist artworks embedded in Britain’s mid-century estates and civic spaces are celebrated in photographer Simon Phipps’s latest book, Concrete Poetry: Post-War Modernist Public Art.

Claire Carponen - The Spaces

Concrete Poetry: Post-War Modernist Public Art, published 6 November 2018

Hardcover: 192 pages
Size: 180 x 230 mm
Publisher: September Books
ISBN-13: 9781910463123

‘With this collection, Simon Phipps has, through his tenacious handling of both the space and place of each subject, extended his artistic exploration of the everyday and, at the same time, provided a documentary record of the steadily diminishing and disappearing artistic assets of this country. What makes the record especially poignant is that it is not only the works of art that are threatened, but also the fragile but tangible humanitarian concern and community spirit they embody.’ Darren Umney

Photos: Studio Small

DAM Architectural Book Award 2018

Finding Brutalism is prizewinner in DAM Architectural Book Award for the ten best architectural books in 2018. 2018 is the tenth time the Frankfurt Book Fair and Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) have bestowed the International DAM Architectural Book Award.

Photo: Uwe Dettmar

Architecture & Transparency

Interview
Edited by Urs Meister and Vera Kaps
Published by University of Liechtenstein 2018
ISBN: 978-3-9524531-3-1

Concrete Poetry: Post-War Modernist Public Art

Hardcover: 192 pages
Size: 180 x 230 mm
Publisher: September Books 2018
ISBN: 1910463124

Solaris #02

The house as a machine. Lloyds Building photographs commissioned by Hochparterre, Zurich for Solaris #02

Finding Brutalism

Exhibition: University of Liechtenstein

18/5/18 -19/6/18

Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 2018

Finding Brutalism was awarded with a bronze medal in the category «conceptual and artistic» at the German Photobook Award 2018

Every House on Langland Road, Simon Phipps and Darren Umney, Architectural Association, London 12 January - 10 February 2018 – Review

The troubled relationship between architectural purism and ordinary domestic life is laid bare in a photographic exploration of one 1970s Milton Keynes Estate.

Icon Magazine - Douglas Murphy

Occasional Papers in the Historic Built Environment

‘Every House on Langland Road,’ by Darren Umney and Simon Phipps, a design academic and a photographer, respectively, takes as its case study Netherfield – that much maligned Derek Walker designed early 70s housing estate in the New Town of Milton Keynes. It is a piece as carefully crafted as the initial vision of Netherfield itself and considers the conceit of a modern version of new Georgian architecture set within a halcyon, once agricultural landscape as perhaps more of an artistic statement of visual placemaking than as a place made for people to live. - Noël M. James

Occasional Papers in the Historic Built Environment - New Town Heritage
Edited by Noël M. James

Published by Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre 2017
ISBN 978-1-9999517-0-

Every House on Langland Road

Exhibition: Architectural Association

12/1/2018 - 10/2/2018

New Books Explore Definition of Brutalism

In Finding Brutalism, Simon Phipps lets a rich assortment of his black-and-white photographs do the talking, save for a trio of essays at the back. But that’s precisely the point: each of his images is a 1,000-word composition on material, scale, or form, and Phipps is a master storyteller in this medium without “the distractions and extraneous detail of color”.

Deane Madsen - Architectural Record

Finding Brutalism. Recording the best of British brutalism

Photographer Simon Phipps has been documenting Britain’s post-war architecture for almost twenty years. A new book, ‘Finding Brutalism’, features around 200 of Phipps’ photographs of some 160 buildings in all parts of the country completed between the 1950s and the 1980s, captured in gritty, high-contrast black and white. Images are reproduced at a generous size – one or two to a spread – and bolstered by essays by Catherine Ince and Owen Hatherley, and a conversation between writer and academic Stephen Parnell and Kate Macintosh, architect of the Dawson’s Heights housing that perches craggily on a south London hilltop.

Architecture Today

SIMON PHIPPS: FINDING BRUTALISM

For almost twenty years British photographer Simon Phipps has been documenting the rebuilding of Britain after the Second World War through the work of architects.

Whitelies Magazine

Monster der Moderne

Rau, roh, robust: Bauten aus Beton wirken oft wie Trutzburgen – oder Schlachtschiffe, stolz und uneinnehmbar. Viele Gebäude der Nachkriegsmoderne gehörten allerdings auf eine Artenschutzliste, sie verfielen über Jahrzehnte und gelten als zu monströs, um bewahrt zu werden. Doch nun ist der Brutalismus wieder in den Fokus gerückt und wird als ehrliche Formsprache ohne historisierende Nostalgie gepriesen. Simon Phipps fotografiert Britanniens Betonmonster seit Jahrzehnten, wir zeigen Bilder aus seinem bei Park Books veröffentlichten Band Finding Brutalism.

Foto: Uwe Dettmar

Zeit Magazin

Concrete celebration: exploring brutalism through the lens of Simon Phipps

Our admiration for all things concrete is part of our DNA, so when we found out about fine art photographer Simon Phipps’ new book on brutalist architecture, we were rubbing our hands together in glee; and when the book reached our offices, it did not disappoint.

Wallpaper - Ellie Stathaki

Finding Brutalism

Hardcover: 258 pages
Size: 200 x 255 mm
Publisher: Park Books 2017
ISBN: 3038600636

In cooperation with Museum im Bellpark, Kriens

Finding Brutalism in Great Britain

The lecture series "Finding Brutalism in ..." takes place at the Institute of Architecture at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences - Technology and Architecture. The second event "Finding Brutalism in Great Britain" will take place on 19/10/17 between the British and Swiss theoreticians and practitioners - Irina Davidovici, Adrian Forty, Jonathan Sergison, Stanislaus von Moos and Simon Phipps. The topics of discussion will be above all the beginnings of brutalism in Great Britain, but also its impact on contemporary, international architecture.