University Project
2026
Streets in the Sky is a dual publication exploring Brutalism through both history and design. The first, Britain Brut (a play on beton brut), looks at the history and cultural significance of Brutalism in Britain. The second is a calendar, and not just any calendar.
Created in direct response to an ISTD brief to portray power, the calendar looks at time through a brutalist lens. Structured as a building, each floor represents a month and each room a day, pushing you through a strict, linear progression with no skipping ahead and no going back. The format reflects the ideology: imposing, inevitable, and uncompromising. Two concrete tablets, originally designed as covers, were cast and displayed alongside the publication as objects in their own right.
Research covered architectural history, key figures, and countless buildings, but also the physicality of print itself. An early idea to bind the publication in concrete was quickly scrapped once the weight made that pretty unrealistic. More usefully, Bob Pang's Unknown Brutalism Architecture in Hong Kong offered an interesting binding approach, which, read alongside Reyner Banham's The New Brutalism, helped pin down the design direction entirely. Banham's three principles, Memorability of Image, Clear Exhibition of Structure, and Valuation of Materials as Found, became the foundation everything was built around.
The project changed a lot along the way, with a full redesign happening in the final week. An early version was just a standalone calendar, but that felt like it wasn't enough. The decision to go further, moulding and casting concrete covers and writing a whole new companion publication, turned out to be the right call. What started as a supporting piece ended up becoming the heart of the project.
