tony garnier in lyon

Tony Garnier is perhaps most known for his Une Cité industrielle drawn between 1899 and 1904 depicting a city of the future. His plans showed a city stripped to its essentials, functionalism in its purest form. He stripped the workers' residences of all ornamentation. He showed the drawings in an exhibit in 1904 but didn't publish them until 1918.

As a concept, his city was never built (but his plans influenced later city planning). Garnier later built three villas in Lyon in the same style of his worker's house between 1911 and 1924. By today's eyes, the buildings appear unremarkable, in large part because Modernism won and many buildings look like this today, unadorned.

 

a brutalist hike down the toblerone trail in switzerland

The Toblerlone Trail is a hiking trail that follows the Toblerone Line, a 10-kilometer stretch of dragon's teeth anti-tank concrete barriers. The Swiss installed 2,700 9-ton concrete barriers that look like Toblerone candy bars. Built between 1939 and 1945, most of the line still exists, and its quite a vigorous hike. It a took a bit for us to find the trail, but were rewarded with one giant hunka concrete after another. A Brutalist hike!