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I don't disagree with you, but I think there's a further criticism of Brutalist architecture that's worth mentioning. Brutalism does indeed try to value functio
by squeed 9y ago
I don't disagree with you, but I think there's a further criticism of Brutalist architecture that's worth mentioning. Brutalism does indeed try to value functionality over decoration, but I feel it misses the mark in that regard, giving up too much in exchange for too little.
Reinforced concrete is not the wonder-material it was initially thought to be. It needs plenty of maintenance; it needs to be painted and guarded against water; and it is very very hard to make watertight window junctions.
A critical part of a building that is "functional" is that it's able to change and be altered as needed. No matter how brilliant your programming and research, needs will change. And then you're looking at years of noisy jackhammering and drilling to put a door, conduit, etc.
So if concrete is no everlasting maintenance-free wood, is the physical inflexibility worth it?
- foolrush 9y agoI love the tongue in cheek site. Cracked me up. Brutalism is peak Late Modernism in the sense that it is the complete exorcising of cultural symbology via ornamentation. The timing of Brutalism isn't coincidental; it actively marched lock step with late industrialization. The need for an engine of commerce needs specialisation and parts that work with ultra efficiency in the machine. No need for the baggage of cultural nuance nor ecclectic individuality. Not a surprise that the busted up ideological polemic of "form" vs. "function" takes its dark roots in this era.
- mbrock 9y agoInteresting connection for people interested in design patterns: > At the University of Oregon campus, outrage and vocal distaste for Brutalism led, in part, to the hiring of Christopher Alexander and the initiation of The Oregon Experiment in the late 1970s. This led to the development of Alexander's A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building.
- tpm 9y agoBrutalism created its own symbols, through the simple and massive presence of concrete that cannot be ignored. Also concrete by itself quickly stopped being the most effective building material. On the other hand, the International Style, emerging at about the same time, now that's completely devoid of cultural symbols.
- peterclary 9y agoMost brutalist architecture is explicitly not painted; the point is to leave the concrete "raw". "Brutalism" comes from "Beton Brut" or "raw concrete". If it's painted, it's just a concrete building, not a Brutalist building. It's interesting you should mention flexibility, because 1-3 Willow Road, Hampstead, UK is an interesting example of flexibility. The internal walls are almost all wooden and designed to be folded back, allowing for a very flexible day-to-day use of the space. On the other hand, the B.A.T. Building in Woking, UK is a large Brutalist building and a friend who used to work there told me that it was indeed an absolute nightmare for running conduit. Wifi didn't work because all the walls were thick reinforced concrete, but it was also built (he said) without room for raised floors or suspended ceilings. They had to drill through those thick walls. So it all comes down to how you use concrete and where. Wood is hardly maintenance-free. It also needs painting/sealing and guarding against water. There have also been some spectacular problems where people have tried to do things with wood which should have been done with steel (the fiasco with timber Legoland Windsor Hotel and the emergency reinforcements to support its pool spring to mind). You sound like you have some experience in construction?
- baybal2 9y agoIs it a thing with with Californians that they prefer to not to plaster over bricks?
- throwanem 9y agoNot just Californians, I should think; it's rarely done here in Baltimore, too. Not sure if it's the aesthetic or the maintenance drawbacks that primarily prevent it.
- lmkg 9y agoAny brick you see on a building in California is ornamental to begin with. Brick turns to liquid during an earthquake, so it can't be used as a load-bearing component anywhere with seismic activity.
- chippy 9y agoI was about the post about how Brutalism originated about it being raw material and not brutal appearance. How would the raw concrete metaphor relate to UX / Web design? I think possibly by not using CSS for layout, only basic styling. Having tables with exposed default cell borders, having headers being browser default sizes, only using system fonts.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Meai 9y agoThat's a great point, I think a brutalist data entry website would be a giant table of input boxes without labels, only hover over text. Something like that, where it looks efficient... but in reality it's kinda ugly and a pain to use and it would benefit greatly from just a tad more UI friendliness, but they value purity over functionality.
- NoGravitas 9y agoAh, disagree. I think a brutalist data entry website would be a straight-down-the-page list of unadorned, unstyled form fields. The labels would be there, and would have proper for= attributes, but would be unstyled.
- Meai 9y agoyeah maybe, it was a little over the top I guess. I was thinking of a brutalist building with seemingly 2 meter thick walls and tiny slits for windows and it seemed to be barely useful for actual living, so that's why I exaggerated with the website analogy https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/%E6%95%B0%E5%AD%97%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%A4%A7%E5%8E%A6_20130610.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/%E6%95%B...