Book excerpt: Buildings designated brutalist in style were largely built in the 1960s and 1970s, exuding an aura of daring, uncompromising design today. Vilified for decades as the step-child of modernism, brutalist architecture is now enjoying an astonishing comeback by inspiring contemporary architecture. This book offers a sophisticated overview of post-war and contemporary brutalist buildings and of the relationship in appearance and design, in the grand concepts and the smallest details between brutalism today and its ancestors.