What's Your Opinion of Brutalist Architecture?

[Tsarus 2142]

there is this very obvious beauty in its hideousness. the long arrays like some kind of sci fi horror depiction, rows of cells, it's quiet authority. you go in feeling like you're about to be taken away and you leave feeling detest towards the tyrant dogs inside of the building. brutalism is hideous but you can't say it's dishonest.

Actually you very much can. The Boston City hall isn't some tyrannical force dictating every aspect of your life. It might be honest if it was for, like, state or national government buildings, but I find it quite hard to say city halls and city governments are some imposing, powerful force to the level of tyranny. I've never lived in a big city, though, so maybe it's different there.

what if i told you it makes it feel like you're living under an imposing, powerful tyranny thus making your life feel a lot cooler?

[Nilokeras]

It looks like a prison!

Could be worse... could be the British Embassy in Rome. Which actually do look like a prison.

Notably because the British embassy in Rome was destroyed in a terrorist attack in 1946, and this was built as a fortified replacement. The Years of Lead were not a particularly stable time in Italian history, unsurprisingly.

Here's this bizarre ahistoricism that brutalism seems to induce in its haters - 'going OMG a prison' without looking at the Wikipedia page you're already citing to see why it is that the building looks that way

[Ifreann]

Could be worse... could be the British Embassy in Rome. Which actually do look like a prison.

Notably because the British embassy in Rome was destroyed in a terrorist attack in 1946, and this was built as a fortified replacement. The Years of Lead were not a particularly stable time in Italian history, unsurprisingly.

Here's this bizarre ahistoricism that brutalism seems to induce in its haters - 'going OMG a prison' without looking at the Wikipedia page you're already citing to see why it is that the building looks that way

And here I thought the Years of Lead were a nationwide plumbing campaign.

[Hurdergaryp]

Notably because the British embassy in Rome was destroyed in a terrorist attack in 1946, and this was built as a fortified replacement. The Years of Lead were not a particularly stable time in Italian history, unsurprisingly.

Here's this bizarre ahistoricism that brutalism seems to induce in its haters - 'going OMG a prison' without looking at the Wikipedia page you're already citing to see why it is that the building looks that way

And here I thought the Years of Lead were a nationwide plumbing campaign.

Someone inform Ifreann that Blaat hijacked his account.

[Huaren Gongsi state]

I went to Surabaya (Indonesia) to visit a relative and I saw this brutalist-esque building, pretty cool: Surabaya Building

Him?

the person that built it of course

[The Two Jerseys]

it'd be greatly improved if the wall was removed and the building was better kept.

it'd be greatly improved if it was blown up and replaced with stuff like that.

I didn't know Fascist Revival was an architectural style till now...

[Portzania]

it'd be greatly improved if it was blown up and replaced with stuff like that.

I didn't know Fascist Revival was an architectural style till now...

I dont get it

[Federated Mandate]

I actually really like brutalism for some reason. Something about it appeals to me. It's always what I imagined what would become the main architectural style under an authoritarian technocratic government, but that might be because most brutalist buildings I saw when growing up were usually like university science buildings and the like. IC for my nation, brutalism's used for pretty much everything because of that.

[Major-Tom]

It's a tough style to get right - but when people do, man, I'm ashamed to admit how good it looks.

[Neanderthaland]

How brutal can it be if it's not made out of mammoth tusks?

[Upwards Group]

It is soulless, it doesn't represent any organic feeling or culture. I do not think architecture or art that has no meaning or sublimity should exist, and if it does, it is a stain upon whomever created or permitted it.

[Esterazdravo]

I recall a time when I was in Athens and I walked past the British Embassy, it really stood out like a sore thumb. It was very ugly compared to the Italian embassy half a kilometre down the road.

[Narland]

My grammar school was Brutalist. The plus side was the school layout was practical for both the students and the faculty. It was tough as nails (technically tough as steel reinforced concrete) and built to last. The downside was that to most of the community it was a public eyesore.

It was new at the time (1960s), but It got so many complaints that a team came in and smoothed out wonkiness. They added 70s future-deco arches and motifs; put in decorative tiles, painted the doors bright primary and complimentary colors, and added some façades. It was a marginal improvement. Even though it was structurally sound, they tore it down in the 90s or 00s and built a Johnson-esque post-modern brick and stucco to replace it.

When in France, for a short time, I worked out of a building that was concrete in the raw. The locals gave it a vulgar nickname. The plus side was that leasing a space was inexpensive. As a landmark for directions you couldn't mistake it for any other building. The downside was that this building had some serious engineering design flaws. The interior walls sweated with condensation, and it was a veritable mildew factory.

Full disclosure, I like most every architecture style when the building of that style is designed to be somewhat minimal (but not nakedly so) wherein the form follows the function while maintaining an objective or natural aesthetic that is pleasant to the spirit. Someone may not necessarily like it (including myself), but it can be recognized that someone with a sense of taste at least tried to make platonic beauty a part of the architectural consideration. If the building of a particular style is built to be an affront to sensibility, if someone gasps in disbelief at its unveiling, or if one has to say, "Why would they build such a thing?" it probably should not be built. Brutalism tends to be that way. Bauhaus is as close as I can get to most Brutalist structures and still say, "Let it stand."

TLDR
For those who like it, I can understand. My taste in music is not shared with 95% of the people out there. And my sense of style in clothing leaves a lot to be desired (according to the most all of the significant others in my life). So I can empathize with people who like the architecture.

But, as a writer and role-playing gamemaster when describing a drab and hopeless evil empire, an egotistical authoritarian/totalitarian state, a declining civilization, or a megalomaniacal villain's lair, it is almost always with architectural Brutalism (or Neo-Brutalism) in mind. It reminds me of societal death and decay; man's indignity (loss of a sense of shame) to his fellow man, and humanity's loss of its soul.
End TLDR

[Northern Seleucia]

Actually you very much can. The Boston City hall isn't some tyrannical force dictating every aspect of your life. It might be honest if it was for, like, state or national government buildings, but I find it quite hard to say city halls and city governments are some imposing, powerful force to the level of tyranny. I've never lived in a big city, though, so maybe it's different there.

As a resident of Boston...it can feel like it is tyrannical at times.

[Ar-Eris]

It is kind of a guilty pleasure of me personally, many people decry it for its ''ugliness'' but I like its ambition and how it stands out. I wouldn't want everything to be neoclassical facades or glass towers either. We can have some nice concrete buildings to provide space for graffiti.