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I don't disagree that the concrete hellholes brutalism became associated with are brutal in that sense, but if you want to see a version of brutalism this doesn
by omnicognate 3y ago
I don't disagree that the concrete hellholes brutalism became associated with are brutal in that sense, but if you want to see a version of brutalism this doesn't apply to see London's Barbican Estate. It was built on brutalist and modernist lines but was an aspirational development for "middle and upper middle class professionals" [1] and remains highly sought after to this day.
Only seeing it from the outside I dismissed it for many years, but once I went in I realised both how huge it is and how it shows the ideas of brutalist and modernist architecture do exist independently of the depressing concrete boxes that have often been built in their name.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbican_Estate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbican_Estate
- okeuro49 3y agoI've visited a flat in the Barbican. It was like prison cells in a panopticon. > aspirational development for "middle and upper middle class professionals" [1] and remains highly sought after to this day. In spite of its brutalist architecture, not because. London has a severe shortage of housing/the UK is too centralised.
- omnicognate 3y agoIt may not be to your taste, but the fact that those flats sell for millions today is a counterexample to your claim that brutalism is nothing more than an assault on the lower class. The fact is that plenty of wealthy people disagree with your aesthetic judgement enough to pay to live in those flats for sums that would easily buy them a house in a leafy, conveniently commutable part of London. It provides an alternative motive for at least some brutalist designs.