Nothing like a huge block of concrete to create a relaxing environment!

The lovely perspective from Engelbrektsgatan, Västerås

We may or may not like this raw concrete block but we must recognize that its integration in the center of Västerås is not really a success. Brutalist buildings are difficult to fall in love with at first sight.

Designed by the architect Ernest Simon Brofelth in 1971 (a Monday morning?), this rough concrete block replaced a brick building housing the police station and fire station, built in 1898 according to the drawings
of the architect Erik Hahr.

Brutalism is an architectural style stemming from the modern movement, which emerged in the 1950s. The term brutalism comes from the French phrase “beton brut” which means raw concrete.

Brutalist buildings are generally massive and monolithic structures with rigid geometry style, unadorned and undecorated flat, concrete exterior. The movement began to decline in the 1970s, having been much criticised as unwelcoming and inhuman.