Raw.
Grey.
Loved.

BÉTON is a preservation archive for brutalist architecture — the town halls, libraries and housing estates that were built like promises and are being demolished like apologies.

312buildings on the register

47lost since 2000 — average age at demolition: 54

9saved by campaigns this decade

The register

Case files.

001

Palace of Post & Telegraph

Skopje-school megastructure · 1974 · arch. V. Janev

Threatened

002

Bibliothèque Lumumba

Book tower over reading plinth · 1969 · arch. C. Meunier

Listed · Grade II*

003

Unité de Marseille-Nord

Housing for 1,600 · 1971 · streets in the sky, actually pleasant

Repurposed

004

Tricorn Centre

Shopping ziggurat · 1966–2004 · "a mildewed lump" — it wasn't

Demolished 2004

005

Kirche St. Beton

Board-marked chapel, light from one slot · 1968 · arch. H. Vogel

Listed

Concrete ages like evidence. Every board-mark is a carpenter's morning. Demolition doesn't erase the style — it erases the labour.

BÉTON MANIFESTO · CLAUSE 1 OF 7