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> Brutalism is a 1950’s architectural trend that was abandoning all decorations, and creating brutally simple buildings made from concrete. They often weren’t e
by regentbowerbird 4y ago
> Brutalism is a 1950’s architectural trend that was abandoning all decorations, and creating brutally simple buildings made from concrete. They often weren’t even painted to emphasize their brutal nature. So big, brutal blocks of concrete.
> It was the architects showing they were bored with the status-quo and trying something different. That feels very similar to the current search for the UI trend to take over design.
"Brutalism" doesn't come from "brutal" but from "brut", meaning raw or unaltered. It also had goals and values beyond being bored with the status quo, in that it was a close offshoot of modernism concerned with authenticity.
Although it's true that the name wasn't very good and it's now mostly understood to refer to the massive angular concrete structures we know and love.
- boomlinde 4y ago> "Brutalism" doesn't come from "brutal" but from "brut", meaning raw or unaltered. ...and when something has that quality, you say that it's brutal.
- tgv 4y agoNot according to the dictionary. brutal, adjective savagely violent: a brutal murder. • unpleasant or harsh • direct and without attempting to disguise unpleasantness
- robbedpeter 4y agoIf you only look at one meaning of the word and you feel like being brutally pedantic.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- klez 4y ago"Brutal" comes via the French brutal from latin brutus (brute). The "brut" in French "béton brut" which is the expression from which "brutalist" comes from, has the same root, but in that French expression "brut" has more the meaning of "raw" rather than "savagely violent".
- boomlinde 4y agoWe see "brutal" in that sense in English too, e.g. "brutal honesty" which is not meant to imply that the honesty is savagely violent, but that it's raw and unadorned.
- boomlinde 4y agoA dictionary that doesn't capture every nuance, who'd have thunk it?
- dcz_self 4y agoAgreed. The "brutalism" in web design takes only the superficial look but forgets about the philosophy of nakedness and honesty. How would that translate to the Web? IMO by blurring the distinction between the rendered page and the page source. Nothing to hide! I went ahead and did just that on my own blog: https://dcz_self.gitlab.io/posts/brutalism/ https://dcz_self.gitlab.io/posts/brutalism/
- 2b3a51 4y agoI rather like that layout, no js and the page navigation passes the 'readable on an ancient blackberry classic Web browser' test. Well done.
- mcv 4y agoYeah. Sounds like true web brutalism would mean little to no styling. Just plain Times New Roman everywhere. Black text on grey or white, blue/purple links, etc. Apart from the font (which would probably be going a bit too far for many people), your blog is an excellent example.
- scoopertrooper 4y agoFrom what I can tell, the definition of 'brut' is fairly close to brutal, but more in the sense of brutal honesty, rather than brutal violence. Adjective gross: brut, grossier, flagrant, choquant, fruste, bouffi crude: brut, vulgaire, grossier, cru, simple, sec raw: brut, cru, pur, écru, âpre, novice unrefined: non raffiné, brut dry: sec, aride, séché, brut, tari, caustique rude: grossier, rude, impoli, mal élevé, brut, brusque Noun crude: brut plug-ugly: dur, brut https://translate.google.com/?sl=fr&tl=en&text=brut&op=translate https://translate.google.com/?sl=fr&tl=en&text=brut&op=trans...
- vidarh 4y agoThank you. That paragraph annoyed me too, after I looked for what possible justification the article could come up with for talking about brutalism in web dev context. To find they do not appear to understand the label they're talking about was no big surprise.
- dredmorbius 4y agoAnd "brutal" similarly comes from "coarse, brutal, raw, crude". The etymologies diverge for a bit, but come from the same root. https://www.etymonline.com/word/brute https://www.etymonline.com/word/brute