Concrete DISCOURSE

A penthouse designed by UPSTRS for a science fiction fan is an allegory to the manifold facets of béton brut.

- LUO JINGMEI

Béton brut (a French term for 'raw concrete') refers to the use of concrete in a way that leaves it unfinished. It was made popular by modernist architects such as Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier. The latter started using the term when referring to the construction of Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, France. It was a concrete apartment block built in 1952 that architectural enthusiasts and students make pilgrimages to today.

From the modernist movement came brutalism. The architectural style that emerged during the same era in the UK employed raw materials and celebrated the form of structures over applied decoration. Exposed concrete as well as unpainted brick and steel were common materials, as were geometric shapes and a subdued colour palette.

The style inspired the design of a penthouse in Singapore by Dennis Cheok, who runs cross-disciplinary design studio UPSTRS. In fact, he christened the apartment Béton Brut. Raw concrete surfaces, monochromatic tones and a subdued lighting scheme define the voluminous space, where owner Neil Yang lives and works.

Like the enigmatic space, Yang is discreet, preferring to remain unidentified (the name is an alias). But he willingly offers his take on the style that inspired his home design. "I'm a huge fan of science fiction media, and brutalist architecture is featured in a lot of science fiction film and television, which is probably what drew me to it initially. Brutalism is often criticised and perceived as oppressive, but I think that's somewhat reductive of what this style can convey. Arising in post-World War Two Europe as cities attempted to rebuild from the war, its austere appearance and use of raw concrete was a rejection of the ideologies of before and an attempt to rebuild society in a new image." Yang expounds.