4 ms·

While I tend to agree that brutalist is sometimes an excuse for ugly, even you gotta admit that most of the pictures in the article are quite stunning.

jollybean 5y ago
They are stunning photos, yes. So I guess this should be a discussion about how we can romanticize and contextualize anything with art.
inglor_cz 5y ago
The thing is, quite a lot of those things look better when photoed from a distance and much less so when you actually need to walk around them in your daily life. I used to live next to two rather famous Brutalist buildings. One of them was actually kept in good order and the original architect seemed not to be outright enemy of mankind. It still had a score of problems, but well. The other one was beyond ugly; it was actively evil. I wasn't surprised when I later learnt that the Communist secret police (StB) had extensive wiretapping and surveillance facilities there, among others. It was just a perfect fit.
- noduerme 5y ago
  >> seemed not to be outright enemy of mankind Isn't it incredible that people who had so much hate of their fellow man were allowed to design entire environments for people to spend their lives in? And that we were actually taught about this as a "movement" in school, as if it were just a natural extension of modernism?
  - def_true_false 5y ago
    Jfc, dude, don't you think you are projecting a bit? The article contains photos of, in order, an office building, a theatre, another office building, a TV tower, a small office building, a bridge, a bank, a metro station, a shopping centre. These are not buildings people lived in, and in any case these are some of the more beautiful buildings of the period. Certainly no worse than the average office building of the period (including those in the West). Like, seriously, have you ever seen what ugly commie architecture looked like? The commie blocks built in the 80s when cost cutting was the norm? The ones that are hundreds of meters on the longer side? You say you've been to Prague, well, have you ever been to the rest of the country? How about eastern Slovakia? Poland? Compared to some other places, Prague looks like an architectural masterpiece.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      I wasn't speaking strictly about Prague, much of which is beautiful. I'm talking about the misanthropy of Brutalist architecture in general. Some of the worst examples are in Western Europe.
newby 5y ago
I think they are stunning because they are so ugly. Looking at pictures once is one thing and living or working there is another thing. Add the unwanted associations with the totalitarian regime... I have to admit that I am in favor of destroying them and replacing them with something nicer wherever possible. I respect that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; just my $0.02.
- noduerme 5y ago
  The totalitarian association is what makes them so fucked up. The architects themselves had no true intention of making "art" - they were embodying evil, actually broadcasting and embedding evil into everyday life, for no reason other than pure hatred of the basic human needs in everyday life. They hated their own kind. And anyone who celebrated them, even as a cerebral exercise was evil as well. There are certain buildings in Buenos Aires that you know were where people were tortured in cages in the basement; under the dictatorship, this functioned as a type of psychological abuse of the population who have to walk by that place. The Kremlin is a type of thing like that, even though it existed long before brutalist architecture; its purpose is the same. A boot stamping forever on a human face.
  - namdnay 5y ago
    > The architects themselves had no true intention of making "art" - they were embodying evil, actually broadcasting and embedding evil into everyday life, for no reason other than pure hatred of the basic human needs in everyday life. They hated their own kind. ??? Of course not. They probably thought they were building happy communities under the glorious sun of communism. Unfortunately they were tragically wrong (on both their buildings and their economical system)
    - inglor_cz 5y ago
      Interestingly, the short-lived "sorela" style (SOcialistic REALism) was much less brutal and more esthetically pleasing https://www.google.com/search?q=sorela https://www.google.com/search?q=sorela One of the main drivers of later Soviet Bloc architecture was relentless uniformization and centralization of industry. By far the fastest way to churn out apartments was to standardize a few typical panels, produce them en masse and cover the entire country in just a few types of buildings.
soneca 5y ago
Volcanoes and deserts also generate stunning pictures.
lultimouomo 5y ago
All the pictures in the article are in B&W. Maybe if humans had grayscale vision brutalist architecture would be more tolerable.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  This is an intriguing idea.
sonofhans 5y ago
This is a stunning photograph, too. I'm glad I don't live there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_gir...
ocschwar 5y ago
I love coffee table books as much as the next guy. And I love running around Doom levels. LIving in a brutalist building still sucks.
spaetzleesser 5y ago
You can make stunning pictures of almost anything. I bet you could make stunning pictures in concentration camps full of starving prisoners if you processed them correctly.

jollybean 5y ago

They are stunning photos, yes. So I guess this should be a discussion about how we can romanticize and contextualize anything with art.

inglor_cz 5y ago

The thing is, quite a lot of those things look better when photoed from a distance and much less so when you actually need to walk around them in your daily life. I used to live next to two rather famous Brutalist buildings. One of them was actually kept in good order and the original architect seemed not to be outright enemy of mankind. It still had a score of problems, but well. The other one was beyond ugly; it was actively evil. I wasn't surprised when I later learnt that the Communist secret police (StB) had extensive wiretapping and surveillance facilities there, among others. It was just a perfect fit.

noduerme 5y ago
>> seemed not to be outright enemy of mankind Isn't it incredible that people who had so much hate of their fellow man were allowed to design entire environments for people to spend their lives in? And that we were actually taught about this as a "movement" in school, as if it were just a natural extension of modernism?
- def_true_false 5y ago
  Jfc, dude, don't you think you are projecting a bit? The article contains photos of, in order, an office building, a theatre, another office building, a TV tower, a small office building, a bridge, a bank, a metro station, a shopping centre. These are not buildings people lived in, and in any case these are some of the more beautiful buildings of the period. Certainly no worse than the average office building of the period (including those in the West). Like, seriously, have you ever seen what ugly commie architecture looked like? The commie blocks built in the 80s when cost cutting was the norm? The ones that are hundreds of meters on the longer side? You say you've been to Prague, well, have you ever been to the rest of the country? How about eastern Slovakia? Poland? Compared to some other places, Prague looks like an architectural masterpiece.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    I wasn't speaking strictly about Prague, much of which is beautiful. I'm talking about the misanthropy of Brutalist architecture in general. Some of the worst examples are in Western Europe.

newby 5y ago

I think they are stunning because they are so ugly. Looking at pictures once is one thing and living or working there is another thing. Add the unwanted associations with the totalitarian regime... I have to admit that I am in favor of destroying them and replacing them with something nicer wherever possible. I respect that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; just my $0.02.

noduerme 5y ago
The totalitarian association is what makes them so fucked up. The architects themselves had no true intention of making "art" - they were embodying evil, actually broadcasting and embedding evil into everyday life, for no reason other than pure hatred of the basic human needs in everyday life. They hated their own kind. And anyone who celebrated them, even as a cerebral exercise was evil as well. There are certain buildings in Buenos Aires that you know were where people were tortured in cages in the basement; under the dictatorship, this functioned as a type of psychological abuse of the population who have to walk by that place. The Kremlin is a type of thing like that, even though it existed long before brutalist architecture; its purpose is the same. A boot stamping forever on a human face.
- namdnay 5y ago
  > The architects themselves had no true intention of making "art" - they were embodying evil, actually broadcasting and embedding evil into everyday life, for no reason other than pure hatred of the basic human needs in everyday life. They hated their own kind. ??? Of course not. They probably thought they were building happy communities under the glorious sun of communism. Unfortunately they were tragically wrong (on both their buildings and their economical system)
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Interestingly, the short-lived "sorela" style (SOcialistic REALism) was much less brutal and more esthetically pleasing https://www.google.com/search?q=sorela https://www.google.com/search?q=sorela One of the main drivers of later Soviet Bloc architecture was relentless uniformization and centralization of industry. By far the fastest way to churn out apartments was to standardize a few typical panels, produce them en masse and cover the entire country in just a few types of buildings.

soneca 5y ago

Volcanoes and deserts also generate stunning pictures.

lultimouomo 5y ago

All the pictures in the article are in B&W. Maybe if humans had grayscale vision brutalist architecture would be more tolerable.

inglor_cz 5y ago
This is an intriguing idea.

sonofhans 5y ago

This is a stunning photograph, too. I'm glad I don't live there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_girl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_gir...

ocschwar 5y ago

I love coffee table books as much as the next guy. And I love running around Doom levels. LIving in a brutalist building still sucks.

spaetzleesser 5y ago

You can make stunning pictures of almost anything. I bet you could make stunning pictures in concentration camps full of starving prisoners if you processed them correctly.