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Ten brutalist buildings to know across Asia
A new Blue Crow Media book traces brutalism across 28 Asian countries through 140 buildings and a sharp ten-project selection.
This one belongs less to a single destination than to a way of travelling: through concrete, campuses, churches and civic buildings scattered across Asia. In Dezeen, editor Bob Pang picks ten favourites from Brutalist Asia, a newly released Blue Crow Media book he edited with the publisher’s founder Derek Lamberton. The book gathers photographs and essays on 140 buildings in 28 countries, making the case for Asia’s distinct contribution to brutalism rather than treating it as a footnote to Europe.
Pang’s selection is broad and very readable. It moves from Takamasa Yoshizaka’s Inter-University Seminar House in Hachioji, with its inverted-pyramid hall set into a hillside, to Kenzo Tange’s Sacred Heart High School for Girls in New Taipei City, his only surviving work in Taiwan. There are universities in Bangkok and Hong Kong, Tehran’s Dafineh Museum, a church in Seoul whose forms were inspired by hands in prayer, and Qatar’s General Post Office, presented as an example of brutalism adapted to Gulf climate and building language.
A few entries sound especially worth seeking out in person, including the still-used seminar complex in Tokyo and the remarkable, never fully occupied Interdesign Building in Lebanon, completed over 23 years through civil war. It is essentially a reading list disguised as an itinerary: useful for architecture-minded travellers, or anyone planning a trip with room for a concrete detour.
Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 3 October 2026. Read the original
8 photos
From Dezeen