Simon Phipps

“I have developed an eye for seeing the urbain grain” — Simon Phipps

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Photographer Simon Phipps explores modernist and brutalist architecture through images that move beyond documentation, revealing the sculptural forms, material textures and shifting light of the built environment.

Simon Phipps is a photographer whose work explores modernist and brutalist architecture across Britain. His images move beyond documentation, interpreting buildings through light, shadow and form to reveal their sculptural presence. Drawn to the material textures of concrete and the clarity of post war modernism, Phipps’ photographs capture the atmosphere and spatial drama of the built environment.

Originally trained in sculpture at the Royal College of Art, Phipps approaches architecture with the sensibility of an artist rather than a surveyor. His compositions emphasise form, proportion and surface, revealing how light interacts with concrete and structure. This perspective allows his photographs to explore the tension between monumentality and intimacy that defines much brutalist architecture.

For over twenty five years Phipps has documented modernist architecture across the UK, creating an extensive photographic archive of buildings from the post war period. His work often focuses on structures that exist at a crossroads, where bold social ambitions and architectural experimentation meet the realities of ageing infrastructure and changing urban priorities.

Research and exploration play a central role in his practice. Phipps often begins by studying archival magazines, historical sources and digital tools such as Google Earth to map locations before visiting them. This process creates what he describes as a “familiarity without real experience”, allowing him to arrive on site with a strong sense of place while still responding instinctively to the atmosphere and geometry of the architecture.

Phipps is the author of several acclaimed books including Brutal London, Finding Brutalism, Concrete Poetry, Brutal North, Brutal Outer London, Brutal Wales and Brutal Scotland. Finding Brutalism won the 2018 DAM Architectural Book Award, while Brutal Outer London and Brutal Wales were shortlisted for Architecture Book of the Year in 2023 and 2025 respectively. Through both his photography and publications, Phipps has created one of the most comprehensive visual records of Britain’s modernist architectural heritage.

Artist CV

Brutal Scotland: Scotland's Post-War Modernist Architecture

On view from 21st February - 16th May 2026 in Glasgow, Simon Phipps brings that vision to Scotland's post-war modernist landmarks. In all, Simon studied 160 buildings from Inverness to Galashiels and the exhibition crystalises view of these them as cultural artefacts still carrying the conviction of the era that made them.
The installation further draws on the graphic language of Manplan, the radical architectural magazine of the late 1960s and early 1970s — immersing visitors in the visual atmosphere of the moment these buildings were born.

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