5 ms·

Blindly hating brutalism is just as mimetic as blindly loving it.

by tw1010 8y ago

Nursie 8y ago
A large number of the brutalist housing developments in the UK turned into hellholes. Robin Hood Gardens was a famous one, but most of them look grim, were grim and dark places to live, placed a shadow over the landscape and the lives of the people there. This is not to say that some brutalist architecture can't rise above that. But the major works by the major architects behind the movement often turned out to fail miserably at their stated purposes, putting the lie to the form-as-function ethos. This tends to be blamed on the lack of 'proper' maintenance, or the people just not grokking it properly. What we in the UK are left with in the main is ugly grey-brown hulks that scream poverty, deprivation, violence and depression.
IshKebab 8y ago
I don't think anyone blindly hates it. I mean... use your eyes! It's easy to see what people hate about it. It's ugly. Simple as that. The very best examples rise to "ok that's an interesting design" but they're still undeniably ugly. The Barbican is a very interesting design, but anyone who has actually been there would agree that it is ugly. Contrast them with something like a modern glass skyscrapers (e.g. the walky talky). They may be rather bland and boring but I don't think many people would say they are ugly.
- whywhywhywhy 8y ago
  > The Barbican is a very interesting design, but anyone who has actually been there would agree that it is ugly I find it one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in London. Some of us actually like these sort of forms and concrete as a material. > walky talky I find that thing grotesque, it's like a bad joke on the London skyline. Some skyscrapers are nice like 30 St Mary Axe but when they're done bad the fact they're made of glass doesn't make them any more attractive. In the end its all completely subjective.
  - Nursie 8y ago
    I think your subjective might be a minority view though. I'm not talking particularly about the barbican, but the worst most people could level at the glass towers in London is blandness. To many/most the concrete monstrosities of the 60s and 70s are actively oppressive.
- Jill_the_Pill 8y ago
  Some of the most beautiful interior spaces I've been in have been in brutalist buildings. I find about half of the exteriors truly beautiful. It might be one of those things where knockoffs came along of lesser quality or perhaps I just like the work of certain architects. Also these buildings do photograph weirdly and are really different in direct experience.
  - Nursie 8y ago
    > It might be one of those things where knockoffs came along of lesser quality or perhaps I just like the work of certain architects. The worst examples seem to have come from the biggest names in the movement, at least in the UK.
coldtea 8y ago
It's not necessary to have a nuanced relationship with brutalism (or any other thing an architect might came up with). It was just a random aesthetic theory, with some random justifications. People don't hate it "blindly" (e.g. as some mimetic superstition), they hate it at a gut level, because they find it ugly. Even if they haven't heard of others describing such a building as ugly, and not knowing what brutalism is, they'd still find it ugly. Just show some brutalist building pictures to some common Joe that knows neither, and he'll call it ugly with 99% chance. This common Joe doesn't hate "brutalism" (which he ignores) and is not copying some other's opinion on brutalism, he just hates how that building looks.

Blindly hating brutalism is just as mimetic as blindly loving it.

by tw1010 8y ago

Blindly hating brutalism is just as mimetic as blindly loving it.

A large number of the brutalist housing developments in the UK turned into hellholes. Robin Hood Gardens was a famous one, but most of them look grim, were grim and dark places to live, placed a shadow over the landscape and the lives of the people there. This is not to say that some brutalist architecture can't rise above that. But the major works by the major architects behind the movement often turned out to fail miserably at their stated purposes, putting the lie to the form-as-function ethos. This tends to be blamed on the lack of 'proper' maintenance, or the people just not grokking it properly. What we in the UK are left with in the main is ugly grey-brown hulks that scream poverty, deprivation, violence and depression.

IshKebab 8y ago

I don't think anyone blindly hates it. I mean... use your eyes! It's easy to see what people hate about it. It's ugly. Simple as that. The very best examples rise to "ok that's an interesting design" but they're still undeniably ugly. The Barbican is a very interesting design, but anyone who has actually been there would agree that it is ugly. Contrast them with something like a modern glass skyscrapers (e.g. the walky talky). They may be rather bland and boring but I don't think many people would say they are ugly.

whywhywhywhy 8y ago
> The Barbican is a very interesting design, but anyone who has actually been there would agree that it is ugly I find it one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in London. Some of us actually like these sort of forms and concrete as a material. > walky talky I find that thing grotesque, it's like a bad joke on the London skyline. Some skyscrapers are nice like 30 St Mary Axe but when they're done bad the fact they're made of glass doesn't make them any more attractive. In the end its all completely subjective.
- Nursie 8y ago
  I think your subjective might be a minority view though. I'm not talking particularly about the barbican, but the worst most people could level at the glass towers in London is blandness. To many/most the concrete monstrosities of the 60s and 70s are actively oppressive.
Jill_the_Pill 8y ago
Some of the most beautiful interior spaces I've been in have been in brutalist buildings. I find about half of the exteriors truly beautiful. It might be one of those things where knockoffs came along of lesser quality or perhaps I just like the work of certain architects. Also these buildings do photograph weirdly and are really different in direct experience.
- Nursie 8y ago
  > It might be one of those things where knockoffs came along of lesser quality or perhaps I just like the work of certain architects. The worst examples seem to have come from the biggest names in the movement, at least in the UK.

coldtea 8y ago

It's not necessary to have a nuanced relationship with brutalism (or any other thing an architect might came up with). It was just a random aesthetic theory, with some random justifications. People don't hate it "blindly" (e.g. as some mimetic superstition), they hate it at a gut level, because they find it ugly. Even if they haven't heard of others describing such a building as ugly, and not knowing what brutalism is, they'd still find it ugly. Just show some brutalist building pictures to some common Joe that knows neither, and he'll call it ugly with 99% chance. This common Joe doesn't hate "brutalism" (which he ignores) and is not copying some other's opinion on brutalism, he just hates how that building looks.