Brutalist architecture emerged in post-war Europe, where utilitarian buildings were created to meet social needs. The style is characterized by its rawness – brut in French – as expressed in the use of raw cement and the exposure of the buildings’ systems and materials. Nevo-Goldberst and the conservation department’s head, Jeremie Hoffman, authored a book called Aphoria – Architecture of Independence, the Brutalist Style in Tel Aviv Jaffa, 1948-1977 (in Hebrew) that relates the story of Brutalist architecture in the city. Almost all the photos seen here are from the book. Many of the 300 Brutalist buildings in Aphoria date back to the creation of the state and were interpreted in a very local style. Brutalism in Israel, Hoffman explains, got a distinctly Zionist flavor because of the purpose it was meant to fulfill. “With the creation of the state, the independence that the state required meant that it built a whole system of public buildings and institutions,” Nevo-Goldberst said, “It’s a very important time period in both our architecture and our history. It started out in the fifties and sixties, and Brutalism ruled until the end of the seventies when there was a move toward a new concept of post-modernism.” Source: Israel 21C