Brutal Beauty - The Architecture of Sir Miles Warren

For some the stark, functional lines of brutalist design will never seduce; for others it signalled a bold break from the dowdy houses of old. This Artsville documentary traces the career of Kiwi Sir Miles Warren, who designed some of New Zealand's most famous brutalist architecture including the Christchurch Town Hall and Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre. In this excerpt, Warren describes working on London council housing blocks and his first, oft controversial Kiwi commissions. Historian Douglas Lloyd Jenkins discusses Warren's visual impact on Christchurch, and Aotearoa's architecture as a whole.

Unfortunate term, brutalism. When we were doing what is now regarded as brutalism, the word hadn't been invented.

– Sir Miles Warren reflects on the brutalist label given to a style of modernist architecture

Key Cast & Crew

Michael O'Connor

Cinematographer

Michael Hurst

Narrator

Geoffrey Cawthorn

Producer, Composer

Peter Roberts

Editor

Douglas Lloyd Jenkins

Subject

David Paul

Cinematographer