Brutalist architecture was Modernism's angry underside, and was never, much as some would rather it were, a mere aesthetic style. It was a political aesthetic, an attitude, a weapon, dedicated to the precept that nothing was too good for ordinary people. Now, after decades of neglect, it's devided between 'eyesores' and 'icons'; fine for the Barbican's stockbrokers but unacceptable for the ordinary people who were always its intended clients.

Again, we find that the space standards of twenty-first century luxury are below the required minimum for dockworkers in 1962.

It shows a mediocre architect at the top of his game [on the Beetham Tower in Manchester]