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What's the pitch for brutalism? At least for buildings I've seen, they have all seemed to fail on a usability and aesthetic side. Is there something appealing
by rtpg 11y ago
What's the pitch for brutalism? At least for buildings I've seen, they have all seemed to fail on a usability and aesthetic side.
Is there something appealing to building a dystopian building?
- evanb 11y ago99 PI did a good piece on brutalism. http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hard-to-love-a-brute/ http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hard-to-love-a-brute/
- nickpsecurity 11y agoI still don't get it in terms of websites even though I get the concrete philosophy. What's linked in OP is a hodgepodge of random crap that doesn't feature concrete architecture's strengths in any consistent way.
- rhizome 11y agoOP link is not a coherent statement of anything.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoExactly and with more brevity.
- vlehto 11y ago"The rebar can rust, and the rust can cause the concrete to fracture." The rebar will only rust if the concrete PH is neutralized. (Cement is pretty strong base.) This neutralization happens when the concrete slowly reacts with oxygen. Typically reinforced concrete has safe lifespan of about 70 years, while unreinforced concrete only reaches its max strength around 90 years. Typically lifespan and hardening are both slowed down if the concrete is sealed from water. (By paint or preferably with some external cladding and some passive ventilation between cladding and concrete.) Reinforced concrete is shit if you consider only strenght/weight. It's kinda OK if you take into account price. But if you need good fire safety, it's bloody brilliant stuff. So for big buildings, staircases, elevator shafts and underground spaces it's good choice.
- wycx 11y agoSomething I recently learned of is basalt fiber rebar. It won't rust, but I guess on a long enough time frame it will devitrify. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber
- vlehto 11y agoThanks for the info, I learned something. The trick usually in reinforcing is that you need to find two materials that have relatively equal heat expansion coefficient, while the fiber needs to be lot stiffer than the matrix. Luckily concrete is quite "springy" compared to most metals and ceramics. In composite structures the ultimate strength of the fiber is often not the limiting factor. The limit is how large share of the load is carried by the reinforcement, which is proportionate to the ratio of Young's moduli of the matrix and the fiber (+ fiber length, average direction and volumetric proportion). Steel has almost same expansion coefficient as concrete. Basalt is significantly lower. So it would probably best suit reinforcing in stable climates or used as relatively short fibers. You would not want hundreds of meters long basalt fiber rope to be pretensioned inside concrete bridge, as the rope might crumble the surrounding concrete at hot weather.
- sgw928 11y agoIt reflects the outsized influence Le Corbusier had in the architecture circle. Many people imitated him and built piles of concrete mostly for government and college projects.
- pippy 11y agoI'll have to agree it's not a good fit. Seemly the only advantage brutalism has is ease of construction. Given that a site, just like a building, usability and aesthetics will pay off in the long run.
- smitherfield 11y agoI'm in Boston, pretty much the epicenter. I can't think of many redeeming qualities. My sense of the genre is that it was an attempt to copy Eastern Bloc architecture by architects who were warmly disposed to the Eastern Bloc, and had either disabused themselves or wanted to disabuse us of bourgeois notions of aesthetics and good taste. IMO, although it has definitely improved over the last 40-50 years, architecture peaked aesthetically circa the turn of the 20th century (Art Nouveau[0], Gaudí). [0] https://www.google.com/search?q=art+nouveau+architecture&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=art+nouveau+architecture&tbm...
- meddlepal 11y agoAlso Bostonian here. I think the other problem with Brutalism in urban contexts is that is very non-contextual and very imposing structurally. It really announces itself much to the detriment of everything around it. On the other hand I find Brutalism architecture that sits in contrast to wide open fields or a hillside to work very well.
- trentmb 11y ago> I can't think of many redeeming qualities. I find it clean, non-distracting, 'sterile'- I end up focusing more on the people around me than the buildings towering over me.
- rspeer 11y agoOur upside-down city hall and the plaza wasteland around it are described as brutalist, and yet I would not call City Hall "non-distracting" or the plaza "clean".
- smitherfield 11y agoI think a lot of people ITT may be confusing Brutalism and modernist architecture in general. "Clean," "unobtrusive" and so on are not adjectives I'd use to describe it (Brutalist architecture).
- LoSboccacc 11y ago
- swah 11y agoThere was some discussion on this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10317062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10317062 I liked some of those buildings, but I'm not sure why. Probably just the loneliness feeling.