Inside The Middle East's Most Unique Brutalist Structures

Supported by AD, Inspiring Winds, the theme of the 2024 Van Cleef & Arpels Emergent Designer Prize invites creatives to interpret this natural phenomenon in a functional object. The call is open to all artists and designers living in Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

For more information on submissions, visit here.

When it comes to easy-to-spot styles, brutalist architecture is one of the few that come to mind. After all, it’s simple in both appearance and composition: block-like concrete structures that are often stacked atop one another. The style came into fashion following World War II, when some architects were drawn to creating structures that were both monumental and highly functional.

Below, AD surveys 3 of the most beautiful brutalist buildings from the Middle East.

Step Inside a Brutalist-Inspired Home in Iran

Words by Iain Akerman

Anyone who has visited Iran will know that many Iranians have a soft spot for brutalist architecture. Hulking concrete masses that are demonised as monstrosities elsewhere in the world are sometimes revered as objects of beauty, despite the prioritisation of function over form.

The country’s remote northeast may not be the first place you’d think of when it comes to such architecture, but that’s where you’ll find Villa Hesar, a brutalist-inspired home by the works of Afshin Khosravian and Associates.

Read the full story here.

In Palestine, This New Cultural Space Is Fostering Creative Collaborations

Words by Aidan Imanova

Individual steel letters that form the word ‘Wonder Cabinet’ spin above the main fa?ade of a new cultural building in Bethlehem, on the West Bank of Palestine. These letters are weather vanes fabricated by Bishara Al Hadweh using aluminium mechanical devices, created especially to announce this monumental, almost brutalist cabinet of curiosities.

It is these types of creative collaborations that Elias Anastas and yousef anastas – the brothers behind architecture studio, AAU ANASTAS – had in mind when conceiving and designing Wonder Cabinet, which they describe as a “production-driven cultural space that fosters innovative thinking through art, design, music, architecture and gastronomy.”

Read the full story here.

Modernist Architecture Meets Brutalist Interiors in This Casablanca Home

Words by Ellie Pithers

When the duo behind the Parisian architecture firm Studio KO were asked by a Moroccan businessman to design his Casablanca home, they were able to realise a long-held dream.

The client, a prominent executive, and his wife, both well-connected hosts in Casablanca’s cosmopolitan bonne socie?te?, didn’t want a vernacular villa. “They wanted to be surprised,” recalls Marty of the open-ended brief, “and they never feared what people would say.” Fournier elaborates: “There were a lot of rumours around the house. ‘But it’s a bunker! It has no windows!’ They found it funny.” Adds Marty, approvingly: “They are anti-snob.”

Read the full story here.