The beauty of brutalism - BBC News

Brutalist buildings are most easily recognised by their heavy use of concrete and striking, modernist shapes. 'This Brutal World' is Peter Chadwick's visual love letter to an oft maligned architectural style. His book features over 200 photographs of brutalist buildings from around the world. He told Dan Damon about why he finds concrete so appealing.
(Picture: Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego, California, USA Credit: University of California)

[YOSUP]

Problem is, I don't like being depressed. My high school looked like this, with concrete inside and outside, and it felt like a prison every day. It was so dark and cold and lifeless that it a relief to have a class in the portables.

[Skyelanderr]

I agree to the people that say that it feuels depression, It's dark, grey and has sharp edges (lifeless). Yet this post modern, dark, gritty and minimalist Vision of the future especially on big buildings is quite fascinating..
I find this beautiful in it's own darker way. But hundreds of people living in an Art experiment is not healthy in long term..

[Emanresuadeen]

The perfect look for dystopian science fiction.

[SerpMolot]

Anything but high-tech and deconstructionism.

Brutalism can look good but sometimes (especially when not restored on time) can just be an ugly blob in a beautiful city. And that's why we need architects that know what they're doing.
No brutalist structures near buildings of the "old" styles (baroque, classicism, etc.)

I've noticed that constructivism and brutalism CAN compliment each other by the way.

[Firmanonymous]

Some brutalist building are very awe inspiring others are just redundant and lazy.

[stephengyte]

If you remember a building for it's ugliness, you'll miss it for a different reason when it's gone. Brutalist architecture of all has the power to provoke emotion. For some it's a blot on the landscape, for others it has a deeper beauty. Either way, unlike most architecture it will stand tall in criticism and passion. If it moves you it already lives in you

[jenwhite]

I’ve tried, but I can’t see it. I find brutalist architecture depressingly ugly, with no real redeeming qualities.

[hybrit]

If i take a massive crap in your garden it doesn't make the garden better just because I've added something different and bold to it

[Randomaited]

I love brutalist buildings. They're gorgeous. Admittedly they aren't always well placed in relation to other buildings of differing architectural styles, but general I think they're the best stylistically. They're honest about their structure and function, not too pompous and bourgeois like many classical or baroque buildings, and not too soul destroyingly cold and corporate like the awful glass towers of the most recent decades. They echo a time of hope and progress, one of social solidarity and community, not self-absorbed atomism. Their warm concrete construction is homely in a way, but an unfortunate presumption of the pre-climate change era's notion of infinite growth and resources.
We'll never see another era of brutalism, and maybe that's for the best ecologically, but it is unfortunate. Brutalism was a reflection of the optimism, and belief that we can do anything with technology, of the postwar period. The architecture since has been a sad reflection of the growing pessimism of society, driven by the increasing inequality, and decades of the end of rising living standards from generation to generation.
The buildings we leave behind are the most tangible way we can interact with our descendants, what will they say of our postmodernity's socially hollow, alienating structures built in glass and steel? Only time will tell.

[retcon]

There's always been a part of me that strangely enjoys the brutalist quality of the concrete jungles built in the 60s and 70s. I simultaneously enjoy and despise them.

[bazspaz]

It is a disdainful insult to our species.

[orangemoonglows]

i guess i'm weird cuz i love this.

[allenmoses]

I'm an architect for 40 years. I was always inspired by Victorian architecture. As a student I wrote a paper on why Victorian architecture is important for us today. The Chairman of Visual Studies at Harvard said it was the best paper by a student he ever read. People always love my charming, beautiful buildings. My buildings make people happy, not depressed. Stamp out horrible architecture. Buildings should be therapy for the soul, and not inspire dread, anxiety, and depression.

[pabloheinpereirastolle]

Brutalism allows everything. Like plants growing from its concrete, eagles nests, street art and even graffiti.

[lebro]

If were going to be literal here, they look like unfinished architecture

[thornbird]

I love brutalist architecture, for me it’s nostalgic growing up in the late 60’s and 70’s these buildings were new and very modern . Sadly in the UK the residential buildings have been left to rot or pulled down, it’s sad to see as these would still have made great places to live in with better maintenance .

[RobinocracyGB]

The issue is that Brutalist buildings age terribly. They start off looking impressive, but when they get dirty they just become soul crushingly miserable.

[hoppinggnomethe]

I see no problem with minimalism, but not everything should be minimalist. As for brutalism, I absolutely love it when it's in a fictional dystopian authoritarian or totalitarian society as art. Seriously, these buildings give you a feeling of total power and absolute oppression. They have a very negative energy to them. In my very opinion, this architecture only fits well on prisons and any military infrastructures. Imagine schools with this architecture...

I generally believe that brutalism is not a good thing since mental health is very important for all of us human beings. Poor mental health forms unwanted byproducts in our society. For example, mass shooters. In order to prevent as much poor mental health, I believe that brutalism should also be reduced. We better leave the historic ones alone. They are history. Let's not build more of them.

[jonnda]

Most of the buildings shown here are best case scenarios. That said...
These buildings are often brutal to occupy, difficult to heat, difficult to cool, difficult/expensive to maintain, difficult to find the entrance, and most of them are unwelcoming in appearance because of that last fact.

It is one of the most ironic architecture styles ever considered, as it tends to take humanity out of the equation (in an unfriendly way) while these brutalist structures are usually still supposed to be occupied, maintained, and used by people who are supposed to want to do so... But they often don't or can't.

[ProWarAdvocate]

Brutalism is the most horrible architecture ever conceived