The raw and clumsy aesthetics of exposed concrete (from French béton brut) is one of the trademarks of Brutalism, which has been one of the most important architectural movements since the Second World War.

In recent times there have been many initiatives to recognize the value of these forgotten architectures – see the blog SOS Brutalism – and avoid their demolition, as in the case of the famous Robin Hood Gardens by Alison & Peter Smithsons.

Instead, to find contemporary projects inspired by this poém brut we have to look at the world of design, with experiments made directly on materials (not just cement) to find new alternatives to industrial design and claim the “right to the ugly”.

Marc Leschelier is one of the few who brings these practices back to the scale of architecture, constructing building fragments using simply blocks of concrete and mortar. Worksite III is the prototype of a corner built on the occasion of the Les Jardin du Design festival in Lyon. His is a performative practice: the French architect himself creates construction parts with the future aim of recomposing them into a single structure.