Photographer and author Karin Bürki stands enthralled in front of Triemli Tower at the foot of the Uetliberg in Zurich. “This is one of the most radical brutalist buildings in Switzerland,” she says. “It’s like something out of a science fiction film.” The grey residential tower from the 1960s is a thorn in the side of the masses. For Karin Bürki, raw concrete is a sensual material and Switzerland is a treasure trove of impressive exposed concrete buildings in which “architecture and sculpture mix”.

Karin Bürki shines a new light on her “concrete beauties”. In 2019 she founded the format Heartbrut and website of the same name “to take a fresh look at Swiss concrete icons and free the solitaires from the stubborn monster cliché”. “Concrete is a cultural asset,” says Karin Bürki. She recently published the Carte Brute Zürich, a folding map featuring Zurich’s 40 most striking concrete icons.

"Concrete, exciting? Exposed concrete, a piece of Swiss cultural heritage? Zurich writer Karin Bürki absolutely thinks so. But she is by no means naïve. She is well aware that the general public still regards concrete buildings from the 1960s and 1970s as "monsters" and eyesores. Keen to change that she has published "Carte Brute", a folding guide featuring the "50 most daring and exciting" Swiss concrete icons of the last 100 years."

“Carte Brute” presents 50 pioneering buildings from Switzerland’s rich concrete heritage. All epochs are brought together, from the Goetheanum in Dornach built in 1928 to the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur from 2016...Karin Bürki’s photos, some of which are taken from somewhat idiosyncratically chosen perspectives, are probably not every architect’s cup of tea, but they nevertheless function perfectly as a source of inspiration for future brutalist expeditions through Switzerland."

"Switzerland is well-stocked with brutalist icons. The post-war building boom brought us a good number of concrete buildings, exposed concrete (in French "béton brut") became a design tool in architecture. The writer and photographer Karin Hunter Bürki has been capturing these buildings photographically for some years now... With plenty of panache, she promotes the modernity and contemporary relevance of these concrete monsters so often condemned as ugly (despite revival and hype)."