Brutalism in Guernsey

Guernsey's concrete heritage is dominated by the Second World War. Occupied by German forces from 1940 to 1945, the island was fortified as part of the Atlantic Wall, leaving a dense legacy of bunkers, gun emplacements, and observation towers in raw poured concrete. The Observation Tower MP4 L'Angle (1942) is among the most striking, its stacked horizontal viewing slits producing a stark sculptural silhouette that fascinated later architects, including Paul Virilio, who saw in such bunkers an accidental prehistory of brutalism.