Brutalism in Cologne

Cologne's concrete architecture grew out of two forces: the postwar expansion of its university and the Rhineland's remarkable church building program. Gottfried Böhm, the Pritzker laureate based in the city, treated concrete as a sculptural material, and churches like the Resurrection of Christ Church show the crystalline, rock-like forms that made his reputation. The university quarter holds a dense group of 1960s and 70s buildings, including the Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek and the Central Canteen, designed by architects such as Rolf Gutbrod and Walter Henn. St. Gertrud, another Böhm church, rises like a folded concrete tent in the Agnesviertel. Together they make Cologne one of the best cities in Germany for seeing sacred and academic brutalism side by side.