What's Your Opinion of Brutalist Architecture?

[Nilokeras]

Essentially though, his defense of brutalism was that it was done on pragmatic grounds and the buildings were built to fulfill instant needs - car parks,shopping centers, bus stations etc. - and not as works of art. In that sense they are understandable.

Another interesting part of the hate around brutalism - how it's become a catch-all descriptor for any building that is made out of concrete, including ones like parkades that literally did not involve any architectural design whatsoever, and are pure acts of often-private engineering

[Dimetrodon Empire]

No, it just means the person in question finds the buildings to be ugly, which they are. It's not the only type of ugly architecture in existence, but it is ugly.

'which they are'

is an opinion. And a bad one, I can sense in my bones.

You liking to look at bare cement doesn't mean I have to, which is what I am saying.

[Kerwa]

Essentially though, his defense of brutalism was that it was done on pragmatic grounds and the buildings were built to fulfill instant needs - car parks,shopping centers, bus stations etc. - and not as works of art. In that sense they are understandable.

Another interesting part of the hate around brutalism - how it's become a catch-all descriptor for any building that is made out of concrete, including ones like parkades that literally did not involve any architectural design whatsoever, and are pure acts of often-private engineering

No, I am referring to brutalist buildings specifically. I know exactly what brutalism is. They guy I am referring to is defending his brutalist works.

All buildings involve architectural design. And anyone can build something nybrutalism.

[El Lazaro]

Most post-WW1 architecture is evil, soulless, and dangerous garbage. If the nuclear apocalypse becomes a reality, the cleansing of our sins against art will be the silver lining.

[Kerwa]

And before we go all crazy pigeonholing people by artistic tastes just remember Ayn Rand was a really big fan of Modern and American Bauhaus.

[Mountains and Volcanoes]

Most post-WW1 architecture is evil, soulless, and dangerous garbage. If the nuclear apocalypse becomes a reality, the cleansing of our sins against art will be the silver lining.

Posadism?

[Nilokeras]

No, I am referring to brutalist buildings specifically. I know exactly what brutalism is. They guy I am referring to is defending his brutalist works.

All buildings involve architectural design. And anyone can build something nybrutalism.

All buildings incorporate design, the elements of which are generated by architects. That does not mean that they are architectural statements, or even that an architect had any meaningful input in the design. Your average plastic five-over-one apartment/commercial development these days involves an architect, but do they have any control over the content of the building? The answer is usually a very firm no.

Likewise, people love hating on just about any piece of cheap quickly assembled concrete building as 'brutalist' architecture, even if said casino parkade was not actually intended as a piece of brutalist architecture. This is because people have no idea what brutalism actually is, and instead indulge in a sort of weak 'retvrn'-ass internet nostalgia for the last century's cheesiest Disneyland neoclassicism.

[El Lazaro]

Most post-WW1 architecture is evil, soulless, and dangerous garbage. If the nuclear apocalypse becomes a reality, the cleansing of our sins against art will be the silver lining.

Posadism?

Mostly jokes, but regardless, whether something is pleasant to you shouldn’t be the only criteria if you’re evaluating something beyond “This does/does not suit my visual preferences.”

[Umeria]

Hating brutalism is usually a good litmus test for having bad opinions about architecture and public spaces, particularly since brutalist public architecture was one of the last movements to actually incorporate any public amenities in the spaces they built. Complaints about its ugliness are usually followed by mushy outpourings about some neoclassical pile built by a guy who hated Jews and bulldozed a minority neighbourhood to build their thing of choice.

Ok but on the other hand, which category does most anti-homeless architecture fall into?

All buildings incorporate design, the elements of which are generated by architects. That does not mean that they are architectural statements, or even that an architect had any meaningful input in the design. Your average plastic five-over-one apartment/commercial development these days involves an architect, but do they have any control over the content of the building? The answer is usually a very firm no.

Does it matter? Like, plenty of painters did portraits and stuff where they didn't have any input into the design. That doesn't preclude it being an artistic statement.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Simple, practical. What's not to like?

[Tangatarehua]

Oh god, it's terrible. There's quite a lot of it in downtown Auckland (actually throughout many New Zealand cities) and it's just an eyesore, I'm praying for an earthquake to come along and destroy a lot of those buildings as they'd genuinely look better as rubble.

[Tangatarehua]

Hating brutalism is usually a good litmus test for having bad opinions about architecture and public spaces

Liking brutalism is a good litmus test for bad eyesight.

[Aesmenia and the Isles]

Oh god, it's terrible. There's quite a lot of it in downtown Auckland (actually throughout many New Zealand cities) and it's just an eyesore, I'm praying for an earthquake to come along and destroy a lot of those buildings as they'd genuinely look better as rubble.

I feel like your overreacting to a few buildings you don't like, just because you don't like it doesn't mean buildings that could be people's homes, work, or government buildings should be destroyed

[Kerwa]

No, I am referring to brutalist buildings specifically. I know exactly what brutalism is. They guy I am referring to is defending his brutalist works.

All buildings involve architectural design. And anyone can build something nybrutalism.

All buildings incorporate design, the elements of which are generated by architects. That does not mean that they are architectural statements, or even that an architect had any meaningful input in the design. Your average plastic five-over-one apartment/commercial development these days involves an architect, but do they have any control over the content of the building? The answer is usually a very firm no.

Likewise, people love hating on just about any piece of cheap quickly assembled concrete building as 'brutalist' architecture, even if said casino parkade was not actually intended as a piece of brutalist architecture. This is because people have no idea what brutalism actually is, and instead indulge in a sort of weak 'retvrn'-ass internet nostalgia for the last century's cheesiest Disneyland neoclassicism.

Yeah, but while not all cheap quickly constructed concrete is brutalism, brutalism was essentially conceived to be quick cheaply constructed concrete buildings. It was post war reconstruction when money and materials were scarce. The fact that a bunch of knownothing pseuds decided to make it something it wasn’t originally is just as much an error as people who mistake brutalism for system housing.

And I grew up in an impoverished area of the UK where this stuff is from. That people don’t like it has nothing to do with nostalgia. A lot of the dislike is to do with it being badly designed, being genuinely ugly, not fit for purpose, poorly constructed and so forth. A great deal of it was abandoned/demolished before the internet was much of a thing anyway. I mean, buildings don’t get names like “tower of terror” just because of 4chan trolling.

Remember too, as an American, your actually first hand exposure to it is extremely limited. And also the internet is not real.

[Kerwa]

Simple, practical. What's not to like?

Being thrown off third story walkways?

[Dreria]

brutalism is awesome, woke idiots hate it because they’re too dumb to understand stuff

[San Lumen]

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/most-beautiful-brutalist-buildings-world

There can be some absolutely stunning brutalist buildings, it is just a style that is very easy to mess up.

Some of those aren't bad. Boston City hall is one of the ugliest though.

[Nilokeras]

Yeah, but while not all cheap quickly constructed concrete is brutalism, brutalism was essentially conceived to be quick cheaply constructed concrete buildings. It was post war reconstruction when money and materials were scarce. The fact that a bunch of knownothing pseuds decided to make it something it wasn’t originally is just as much an error as people who mistake brutalism for system housing.

Again, here's that weird ahistoricism - it was not a postwar economizing reaction. The first non-boutique examples of brutalist architecture (ie the ones that weren't private homes or pet projects) appeared in the late 1950s, when 'The New Brutalism' was published and it started to become an aesthetic movement of its own. The most famous examples date to the 1960s, when it came into vogue as a distinctly utopian building style. Expo '67 in Montreal, for example, produced many famous examples of brutalist architecture.

Besides which this idea is nonsensical on its face. Why would giant concrete buildings, requiring huge amounts of concrete and structural steel support, have been invented in an era when building materials were scarce?

And I grew up in an impoverished area of the UK where this stuff is from. That people don’t like it has nothing to do with nostalgia. A lot of the dislike is to do with it being badly designed, being genuinely ugly, not fit for purpose, poorly constructed and so forth. A great deal of it was abandoned/demolished before the internet was much of a thing anyway. I mean, buildings don’t get names like “tower of terror” just because of 4chan trolling.

Ah, the UK, where a great deal of brutalist architecture was used in the expansions of social housing in the 60's and 70's. Since social housing has never once been maligned by any UK government or by the press, that must mean peoples' perception of it must purely be on aesthetic terms.

Remember too, as an American, your actually first hand exposure to it is extremely limited. And also the internet is not real.

Interesting that you assume I'm an American.

[Unmet Player]

In my opinion it looks ugly and beautiful at the same time, when done right

[Umeria]

Ah, the UK, where a great deal of brutalist architecture was used in the expansions of social housing in the 60's and 70's. Since social housing has never once been maligned by any UK government or by the press, that must mean peoples' perception of it must purely be on aesthetic terms.

Um no, just because mainstream media has an opinion on something doesn't mean everyone who shares that opinion must be a mind-slave to them.

[Shermania]

Straddling the line between beautiful, and radically ugly. It is the Pug of Architecture.

[The Grand Collective]

They can be beautiful, but in my opinion brutalist architectural compositions place higher demands on the skill of their creators.

[Eastern Kansas]

Is it even true that brutalist architecture is "simple and practical"?

Like has anyone actually sat down and tested concrete buildings to steel frame buildings to see which are cheaper to build, stronger, and capable of going to greater heights?

[Nilokeras]

Ah, the UK, where a great deal of brutalist architecture was used in the expansions of social housing in the 60's and 70's. Since social housing has never once been maligned by any UK government or by the press, that must mean peoples' perception of it must purely be on aesthetic terms.

Um no, just because mainstream media has an opinion on something doesn't mean everyone who shares that opinion must be a mind-slave to them.

I said no such thing. Instead, I'm pointing out that the history of brutalism is inextricably linked with its use in major social housing developments, and said social housing has been the target of a culture war, real estate speculation and purposeful neglect going back decades.

[CSharpa]

I kinda get why it was popular, by the fact that there are fewer resources needed to make the building, though it has the downside of looking ugly. The thing is, we're probably going to run out of resources sooner than later, so I think this will be good for the future, but not mainly for now.