Uniâs brutalist concrete auditorium restored Weâre sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss By Stephen Crafti Save Normal text size Advertisement Brutalism has a short life in the history of architecture, emerging in the 1950s and reaching its peak in the late 1960s to early â70s. And while many of these raw concrete edifices were washed over in the following decades, it is now seen as âheroicâ architecture with the passage of time. One of Sydneyâs greatest examples of brutalist architecture is the Sir John Clancy Auditorium at the University of New South Wales.