4 ms·

I'm sick of hearing this, it was obviously a double meaning from the start. They revelled in how brutal it was.

• regentbowerbird 5y ago
  I'm no expert in architecture history, but I don't think it is so obvious. Le Corbusier's projects such as the Cité Radieuse or the Plan Voisin, which largely defined modernism, seem to me to be quite clearly the starting point of early brutalism, which didn't look all that brutal. Le Corbusier is also the source of the "béton brut" phrase, apparently.
  • jonnycomputer 5y ago
    What I'm annoyed by is the assumption that "brutal" only means violent. Brute-dull, stupid. Brutal honesty-direct and unvarnished honesty.
  • hprotagonist 5y ago
    > the Plan Voisin, which largely defined modernism, seem to me to be quite clearly the starting point of early brutalism, which didn't look all that brutal. “Raze a third of Paris, it is Too Messy!” isn’t “all that brutal”?
    • regentbowerbird 5y ago
      Apologies if it was unclear, I meant that Le Corbusier's projects together largely defined modernism, rather than just the Plan Voisin. The Plan was more or less a marketing scheme. It brought attention to the problems modernism was to solve: it was large-scale, clean, egalitarian, bright, full of greenery, and paid attention to transportation — all things Paris had issues with at the time. (1920s Paris still had slums!)
      • deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]