Architectural 'brutalism' rises to an old level

The Blackwood Street Bunker has been shorn of extraneous accretions. Photo: Lisbeth Grosmann

This brutalist pile in Blackwood Street North Melbourne is dubbed the "Blackwood Street Bunker" by Clare Cousins Architects.The monumental two-level building includes Cousins' practice, as well as other creatives.

"We searched the council records and discovered when it was built [1979], but not who designed it," Cousins said.

Fortunately, when Cousins moved into the building less than a year ago, only cosmetic changes had been made. Rudimentary partitions dissected many of the offices, a number of which were medical services, allied to the hospitals nearby.

So when the architects moved in, along with the Maben Group, a commercial construction company that occupies the same level, less, rather than more, was the mantra from the outset.

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And in some instances, the process was stripping away rather than adding.

"It's a fine example of brutalism. The materials, particularly the off-form concrete, have been beautifully conceived," said Cousins, who occupies about 120 square metres of the second level.

While the 1980s partitions were relatively easy to remove, the mustard-coloured render on the building's facade required considerably more effort. With the render removed, the building presented a striking form to the street.

The interior was also handled with "kid gloves". Apart from opening up rear windows and doors to an existing eastern terrace and inserting steel handrails to meet building standards, the shell is virtually intact.

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Architectural 'brutalism' rises to an old level