While Brutalist homes may not seem quite as striking as their colossal counterparts, their designs are often just as evocative of the historic architectural style. Brutalism, defined by a steadfast employment of angular shapes and raw materials such as concrete, can provide a simple yet unique backdrop for daily life. From interiors decorated with similarly rugged furnishings to those filled with contrasting curvy fixtures, we’ve gathered four stunning Brutalist homes featured by AD.
When asked to name the biggest influences on his work, Vincenzo De Cotiis, the Milan-based architect, designer, and artist, demurred, saying, “I consider myself omnivorous. I feed on many different stimuli, spanning art, architecture, and imagery.” De Cotiis is known for his richly textured, ruggedly sculptural limited-edition and custom furniture, which combines iconic modernist materials like brass and Tuscan marble with decidedly less conventional ones like fiberglass recycled from old boats and recycled wood—with elegant results. In an essay by Anne Bony in Vincenzo De Cotiis: Works (Rizzoli Electa), the recently published book that focuses mainly on his furniture, De Cotiis cites influences like the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s and early ’70s, as well as the minimalist work of Donald Judd. De Cotiis is also known for interiors in which he strips centuries-old architecture of any later embellishments or updates, creating a conversation between the authentically historic and his emphatically contemporary furniture designs.
But in a house outside Milan that De Cotiis designed from the ground up for a couple who are avid collectors of art, objects, and vintage 20th-century furnishings, the layers are almost all modern. Due to the owners’ wish for privacy and the close proximity of the neighboring houses, De Cotiis created a rather brutalist concrete building, tempered with abundant natural light and outdoor space. He explains this seeming departure from his previous residential work by saying that, in this case, there was “no historical stratification, no previous trace. The form is defined by the lot and the required choice of materials: a contemporary bunker adapted to accommodate the cultural life of an educated couple.” He says, “The challenge was to create an architecture that comes to life inwards while screening its exterior, giving a sense of protection and intimacy.” De Cotiis takes this “bunker” and imbues it with warmth, texture, and human scale. —Pilar Viladas
When Manhattanites are looking for a weekend home, they typically go one of two directions: Jump into the high-octane social swirl of the Hamptons or head for the hills upstate. Born and bred in the former camp, Evan Yurman wanted a little quiet escapism when the time came to plant roots of his own. “There are a lot of people that you know here,” the chief creative officer of David Yurman says of the historically artistic Catskill Mountains, where he and his wife, Ku-Ling, retreat with their three children. “But you never see them.”
The couple spent years house hunting before they happened upon the perfect spot: an old bluestone quarry (Evan quips that it wasn’t a very productive one) perched on the side of a mountain with nearly 200 acres unfolding beneath it. The base structure had originally been built as a commercial studio for fine-art photographer Hans Gissinger and was converted into a bachelor pad before the Yurmans came into the picture. “It just wasn’t homey,” Evan says, adding with a laugh, “We had to exorcise the place.” Enlisting Moschella Roberts Architects, with whom they also collaborated on their West Village residence, they redesigned and expanded the existing structure to fit their aesthetic and familial needs, while adding a swimming pool and converting a barn into a pool house. A 14-seat basement screening room that was discovered only after they closed on the property remains happily intact for popcorn-fueled movie nights.
The interior of the home is now wrapped in linear slabs of wood and concrete that simultaneously project coolness and warmth. “I have an allergy to drywall,” remarks Evan of the design choice. He and Ku-Ling collaborated on the decorating, which features a revolving roster of midcentury pieces, from Ib Kofod-Larsen and Hans Wegner chairs to Noguchi lamps, all in honest, authentic materials. “Nothing fussy,” he notes, adding, “I love chairs. I don’t know if it’s a guy thing. My wife says it is. If we find ourselves in an area with good furniture, we just buy stuff and fill containers. We have more furniture than we have a place for.” It’s turned out to be a convenient predicament for his role overseeing the design of the new David Yurman flagship on 57th Street in New York City, where he’s parked some of his most prized possessions—among them a pair of Philip Arctander clam chairs and a Heinz Lilienthal brutalist table. “They’re on loan,” he says with a wink. —Jane Keltner de Valle
Buzzing up to architect Luca Cipelletti’s latest residential project in Milan, it’s impossible not to notice two other names on the door: Nathalie Du Pasquier and George Snowden. The designers (who happen to be husband and wife) were founding members of the 1980s radical design movement, the Memphis Group. And when Cipelletti first set foot in the Porta Nuova building’s windowless, L-shaped attic space, which he’d had been hired to redo, the door was labeled with the names of the movement’s founding father, Ettore Sottsass, and cofounder Marco Zanini.
“They were the first radicals,” Cipelletti says of the group, known for their irreverent use of zany shapes and colors that challenged notions of good taste. As a teenager in Milan in the ’80s, Cipelletti had seen many of their first shows and decades later he would design a 2006 Sottsass exhibition in Tokyo as well as the 2021 reconstruction of a Sottsass interior, Casa Lana, at La Triennale Museum, in Milan. “They didn’t always need to think of a function. That freedom helped me a lot in a way.”
But if you’re thinking this apartment is a blatant homage to radical Italian design, think again. Cipelletti is a different kind of crazy, he insists, “my craziness is in compulsive obsession—it’s more severe; it’s about deleting things.” He likes to use the word millimetric to describe his work. And indeed, this project is about as detail-obsessed as it comes. Table surfaces are cut at 45-degree angles to give them a paper-thin appearance. Marble is book-matched on floors and walls to look like one large sheath. And a linear motif, like the frets of a guitar, runs horizontally across the apartment from ceiling to walls, across the bookshelves and onto the floors with almost painful precision.
The 400-square-meter, L-shaped volume had tall, pitched ceilings, but no natural light, so to make it more habitable Cipelletti made a series of incisions on the front, side, and ceiling to create a windows and skylights and added about 100-square-meters of terrace (planted by landscape architect Derek Castiglioni) just beyond. Everything balances on asymmetric, plaster-coated pillars that repeat every 36 meters, for an effect that is, in Cipelletti’s words, “a bit neo-Gothic and brutalist.” —Hannah Martin
Jose Alvarez—cofounder of fragrance brand Abbott—perfectly remembers when he first set eyes on his current apartment. “I knew exactly what I wanted: high ceilings, big windows, and a rugged industrial feel with room to grow when I had a family,” he recalls. “When I first walked in, the 14-foot windows showcased a setting sun…and the feeling of nature overwhelmed me. I fell immediately in love.”
It wasn’t hard to persuade Alvarez, even after 10 years of living in Manhattan, to cross the Williamsburg Bridge in order to start this new phase in Brooklyn. “Williamsburg, specifically, has all the great qualities of a downtown Manhattan neighborhood—restaurants, night life, art, music—without the nonstop hustle and bustle,” Alvarez notes.
Along with his wife, Brooke Hammel, Alvarez hired interior designer Jae Joo to furnish the 1,500-square-foot loft. The space, which is nestled in the 1914 building that formerly housed the Esquire Shoe Polish empire, was remodeled by architecture firm MeldNYC. All this was five years ago. “Since then, we have become good friends and watched each other go through numerous life changes,” Joo reflects. “They have been talking about doing a makeover to expand the lofted area to accommodate a guest suite–nursery ever since we met. When it was time, we all jumped in together to tackle this renovation.” —Karine Monié
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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