Japan has more Pritzker Architecture Prize winners than any other country, and yet these architects’ buildings meet the wrecking ball frequently and without much ceremony. Before their demise, however, some of these iconic structures are immortalized by fans through photography, and what starts out as a hobby often becomes a valuable documentation project.
Paul Tulett, 48, is one such architecture aficionado, posting photos of Brutalist buildings on his @brutal_zen Instagram account. The monumental concrete buildings in his native England captured his attention from a young age, and his interest in architecture led him to earn a master’s degree in urban planning and environment from Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. After he moved to Okinawa in 2019, Tulett chanced upon many Brutalist buildings he didn’t know about, which prompted him to refashion his Instagram account to focus on Japanese Brutalism. Over the past five years, Tulett has traveled across Japan amassing thousands of striking photos of concrete buildings, 200 of which make up “Brutalist Japan: A Photographic Tour of Post-War Japanese Architecture,” recently published by Penguin Random House’s Prestel Publishing.
Brutalist Japan, by Paul Tulett. 240 pages, PRESTEL PUBLISHING, Nonfiction.