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>Le Corbusier's French descriptor for 'raw concrete' was lost in translation and reinterpreted by English commentators as brutal, I always thought that argumen
by baud147258 9y ago
>Le Corbusier's French descriptor for 'raw concrete' was lost in translation and reinterpreted by English commentators as brutal,
I always thought that argument as flimsy, since the word brute exists in French and has exactly the same meaning as in English.
- niftich 9y agoFWIW I'm recounting his own perspective [1], sourced [2][3]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12685595#12689331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12685595#12689331 [2] https://f50collective.com/2016/09/19/brutalist-architecture/ https://f50collective.com/2016/09/19/brutalist-architecture/ [3] 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=...
- Burst 9y agoFrancophone here. There is a difference between "Une brute" (a brute) and, as mentioned, "béton brut" (raw/rough concrete).
- firmgently 9y agoIn English there's a difference between a raw, rough person and raw, rough concrete, but there's a clear etymological link in using brute/brutal to describe them both. It's similar to the way 'crude' can be used to refer to a person or oil that hasn't been through a refining process.
- rounce 9y agoRegardless, it's a postrationalisation (or retranslation, perhaps?) by British architects to force some sort of etymological ancestry into the name of the 'movement' they decided to champion.