Sheffield’s concrete constructions are hard to avoid. Occupying whole areas of the city, these vast superstructures in rough cast stone are always apparent, but often underestimated. In order to show just what we mean, Article has curated a populist-list of Sheffield’s five best concrete mega-structures. A mega-stroika if you will. The only qualification for entry was that the concrete was cast on site.

Brutalism at its best is something that ought to be celebrated, if not only because when compared to the constructions of today, it offers a huge insight into the thought that yes, the future could be built right here. It is the height of a primitive British modernism, a cast concrete jolt of activity in which the multiple directions, multiple speeds and multiple perspectives of cubist-futurism are put to task in grey northern landscapes, anchored by thousands of tons of structure. If that suspicious continental modernism expressed the new world of the factory and machine, something already dated in Britain, Brutalism was, and still is, home to the everyday world. 

Let’s begin with an immediate reaction though. Certain concrete buildings have a ‘fuck’ factor. They make you exclaim, as if they are unrealistic, beyond the level of comprehension. They are huge, with wide expanses of open surface - like Abstract Expressionist paintings, the sheer material expression means that you can never get far enough away. This leads to the design and appreciation of the most wonderfully banal details. Look for the miniature castle motifs that span the surface of Castle Market’s exterior, or the finely crafted steps of an electricity sub-station. 

So when you get close, you are enveloped. Which is the point really. These are superstructures, and their architectural significance lies importantly in something that is not always visually apparent - the programmatic, rather than the tectonic. Inside, you might notice the resolution of wildly varying functions, to the almost parodic, SimCity-esque degree. You can move in every possible direction, from space to space through fun palace like interiors, stepping between levels and interior and exterior. Castle Market and Park Hill in particular are extraordinary experiments in attempting to resolve - with minimal symbolism - an enormous project of many contradictory demands. It’s a mess, but it’s exciting.

As such, Sheffield’s concrete structures deal with landscape in a way that is otherwise ignored. In a place so topographical as Sheffield, this becomes an amazing array of entrances, walkways and stairs. Park Hill has a uniform roof level as it snakes across the hill, in which you can enter at ground level and emerge at the top at the other end. Not only is this architecturally intuitive and clever, it’s a great articulation of landscape that allows you to appreciate the ground beneath you. It’s one part classical design, another part huge prehistoric ruin - it’s possible to seem both pre-modern and high-tech at the same time, in a huge, ugly building.

Of course, none of this suggests that any of these buildings are particularly likeable. Yet with the creeping redevelopment of the city, and the building of more visually appealing architecture it seems that there is a corresponding decline of imagination. The future just isn’t what it used to be.

5: Geography Department

It could really be the Stasi headquarters in Eisenhüttenstadt or the technical college in KarlMarxBaden. The concrete here feels closer to highly finished, continental modernism than English brutalism; this sensation is compounded by the large panes of colourless glass and weird interior staircase. 

4: The Ramp

This is brutalism at its purist: entirely unintentional and in the way. The ramp of Atkinson’s car park lurches over pedestrians inventing its own scale. It might not be enormous when compared with Park Hill or Castle Market but its isolation on the Moor makes it one of the most daunting pieces of Concrete in the city.

3: Park Hill

Perhaps Sheffield’s most infamous building, Park Hill has recently become a favourite of BBC2 prime-time documentaries that look at its idealism as emblematic of its age. Whilst most brutalist buildings that didn’t work have been demolished Park Hill is the first large scale one to undergo total re-development. Sheffield should be honoured that someone is bothered to undertake this experiment. Just be patient: if those Etonian lovies at English Heritage fuck it up you can always demolish it later. 

2: Castle Market

Built at nearly the same time as Park Hill, Castle Market seems to have fared slightly better. The experience of entering for the first time is hard to describe but highly recommended. It conveys Sheffield’s agelessness and consistency. This should really be a famous landmark like the great markets in London, Barcelona and Budapest. The fact that it still functions seems to prevent this. It seems you cannot invent nostalgia for a thing that is working. Still, it is number one on my list of things to show people in Sheffield now that the Arts Tower’s paternoster has been temporarily removed from commission.  

1: Moore Street Substation

I hear dubstep whenever I see this building: lurching over it seems to force me into the ground. Its only purpose is to keep people out and yet it succeeds in drawing me into it. It is amazing! What’s most fascinating about this building is how playful and detailed it is. Concrete beams stick out like children’s linking logs. Even though the building is designed to keep you out, the beams stick out waist high at the bottom as if to invite you to try your luck at climbing. Yet no one talks about this building. No one wants to celebrate it, and no one wants to blow it up. It just sits on the Ecclesall Rd roundabout chillin’. Perhaps why no one complains is because all the buildings on the roundabout are disgusting, hideously bland structures. Beside the identikit dullness of the recently built Velocity Tower that faces the substation raw concrete becomes sexy, fun and individual.