The Utopia Map — A collaboration on Brutalist architecture with Mike Skinner
A collaboration on Brutalist architecture with Mike Skinner
The Utopia Map is a very special poster that celebrates The Streets’ Mike Skinner’s long-running interest in Brutalism, a theme that even crops up on his latest single, 2025's "Utopia". “I was really in a phase where I was fully loving Brutalist architecture,” Mike says, “so I went all over the UK and Europe finding these concrete buildings and letting them dictate the writing.”
Through his life, Mike Skinner has traveled extensively on tour and on his own self initiated trips, to seek out the finest examples of Brutalist architecture across Europe. Over time, he has amassed a collection of photographs and hand-written notes of sites that have inspired him most—from well-known landmarks and buildings to museums, housing blocks and public spaces.
In this collaborative project, WePresent commissioned designer Raissa Pardini to take Mike’s extensive collection of hand-written notes and photographs of Brutalist sites and create the map, which spans sites in his hometown of London as well as Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Leipzig, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, Zagreb, Ibiza, and Nottinghamshire.
The downloadable map is accompanied by an audio conversation between Skinner and Peter Chadwick, photographer and author of This Brutal World published by Phaidon, in which the two discuss the enduring appeal, polarization and importance of Brutalist design.
“This WePresent project feels like a nice extension of that journey,” Mike says, “with the map showing where it all came from and the conversation giving a bit more context to the whole project.”
Download the conversation, the map and the Brutalism-themed music video to The Streets’ track “Utopia” below.
