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I feel this claim, that the term derives from "raw", seems super suspicious. It is repeated very often, but I've never seen any scholarly analysis of where the

I feel this claim, that the term derives from "raw", seems super suspicious. It is repeated very often, but I've never seen any scholarly analysis of where the word comes from. If you look at the Wikipedia talk page, you'll find people pointing out that that etymology doesn't seem to make any sense: the oldest attestations of the word is from a Swedish (rather than French) writer talking about "nybrutalism", which got borrowed into English as "New Brutalism". And the building which was described as "nybrutalism" was made of brick, not concrete. If you can find any information about how Le Corbusier coined the term and when, it would be great if you could add it to the Wiki page!

niftich 10y ago
He wrote a letter in 1962 to a fellow architect in which he said: "Beton brut was born at the Unité d'Habitation at Marseilles where there were 80 contractors and such a massacre of concrete that one simply could not dream of making useful transitions by means of grouting. I decided: let us leave all that brute. I called it 'beton brute' [bare concrete]. The English immediately jumped on the piece and treated me (Ronchamp and Monastery of La Tourette) as 'Brutal' -- beton brutal -- all things considered, the brute is Corbu. They called that 'the new brutality'. My friends and admirers take me for the brute of brutal concrete!" [1][2] [1] https://f50collective.com/2016/09/19/brutalist-architecture/ https://f50collective.com/2016/09/19/brutalist-architecture/ [2] https://books.google.com/books?id=b-OUxSelykIC&lpg=PA18&ots=vb60zelHH5&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=b-OUxSelykIC&lpg=PA18&ots=...
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago
  Based on that, it sounds like the original inspiration was indeed "raw", but it was almost immediately tagged as "brutal" in English, and its admirers knowingly embraced that term. So perhaps the article oversimplifies things, but the broad strokes seem to be correct.

niftich 10y ago

He wrote a letter in 1962 to a fellow architect in which he said: "Beton brut was born at the Unité d'Habitation at Marseilles where there were 80 contractors and such a massacre of concrete that one simply could not dream of making useful transitions by means of grouting. I decided: let us leave all that brute. I called it 'beton brute' [bare concrete]. The English immediately jumped on the piece and treated me (Ronchamp and Monastery of La Tourette) as 'Brutal' -- beton brutal -- all things considered, the brute is Corbu. They called that 'the new brutality'. My friends and admirers take me for the brute of brutal concrete!" [1][2] [1] https://f50collective.com/2016/09/19/brutalist-architecture/ https://f50collective.com/2016/09/19/brutalist-architecture/ [2] https://books.google.com/books?id=b-OUxSelykIC&lpg=PA18&ots=vb60zelHH5&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=b-OUxSelykIC&lpg=PA18&ots=...

PhasmaFelis 10y ago
Based on that, it sounds like the original inspiration was indeed "raw", but it was almost immediately tagged as "brutal" in English, and its admirers knowingly embraced that term. So perhaps the article oversimplifies things, but the broad strokes seem to be correct.