Brutalist Architecture in 6 Minutes: Ugly or Beautiful? 🤔

Can concrete be beautiful? Proponents of Brutalism certainly thought so. The general public, however, remains divided. While some view brutalist buildings as monstrosities and the greatest sin in the history of architecture, others consider them architectural landmarks with historical, cultural, and personal value.

In this episode, we will explain the idea behind this genre of modernism that has become synonymous with dystopian films (A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner 2049, and Resident Evil: Afterlife) and perhaps inspire a newfound appreciation for brutalist buildings. Stay tuned!

#Brutalism #Architecture #CuriousMuse

SIGN UP TODAY
🎨 Check out our online courses on Art, Philosophy and more:

JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
📩 Get your regular dose of culture directly in your inbox

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE CHECKLIST
🔥 10 Tips to Enjoy Architecture Like a Pro

CREDITS:
Story: Asja Nastasijevic
Voice: Caleb Mertz
Copyrighting: Brandon Marcus
Production: IK Video Prod

FOLLOW:

LISTEN:

Curious Muse brings the best of arts and culture stories from around the world. Our stories will make you feel curious, learn new things and have a good time too. We cover a wide range of topics - visual and performing arts, literature and history, architecture and design, fashion and more - explained in a cool, digital way.

Subscribe and join our community today!

[KarlSnarks]

Because of its sculptural nature, I love seeing brutalist buildings on their own, with all the attention set towards it. However, if located in an urban environment, it either looks out of place when built near older and newer styles, or it looks drab when built among other brutalist apartment buildings. I've also seen a revival of "eco-brutalism" which isn't actually very eco-friendly, but just brutalist architecture overgrown with plant life (which gives it a nice contrast).

[aaron]

There's a reason Brutalist aesthetics are used in EVERY dystopian movie.

[StarlitSwamp]

As someone who usually prefers colorful environments, part of me wants to find brutalist architecture bland and ugly, but I can't help being oddly fascinated by it. I think part of its charm (for me personally) has something to do with the coldness of vast, empty concrete rooms feeling more like liminal spaces to explore than homes to inhabit. The post-apocalyptic vibe strongly appeals to my extreme introversion.

[idnwiw]

I had a "showerthought" recenltly concerning Brutalism: The architects of this style spent their childhood in air-raid shelters. So it's no wonder that they associate safety, "cosyness" and survival with this massive concrete buildings. Later, more lucky generations don't have that association, so to us it's just ugly.

My city has put several brutalist buildings under preservation order, and while I wouldn't mind those eyesores to disappear, that's exactly how baroque fans thought when they tore down gothic buildings so who knows, maybe the future will find some appreciation for those buildings.

[triinbean]

So living in Estonia, we have a lot of these types of structures. When it comes to government buildings or museums or such, I see the beauty of this type of architecture. But when it's looking at apartment complexes built during the soviet union, it is a sad reminder of what was and what may be again, and how it affects the everyday person. I will say my favorite part is when apartment owners of a complex come together and allow for a renovation of the exterior. Some even get murals on the sides of the building. Turning a sad reminder of the past into something new and beautiful.

[PADARM]

The problem, as you said it, is that many Brutalist Buildings are very poorly maintained or they were poorly built. but there are many, that are well preserved, and they are really pleasing to the eye.

[davidamadore]

Please take the time to add labels to the buildings you use for illustration (giving their name and location), so that people who want to learn more about them can search easily.

[penelopegreene]

It's better than beautiful. IT'S METAL! Well, it's concrete, but it's METAL!!! 🎸

[Toogoodtobetrue]

I think I need more concrete examples to cement the idea behind brutalist architecture. 💪

[ClarkABennett]

As with any Architectural movement, there are good and bad designs, functional and well-engineered buildings, and those that should never have been approved. Brutalism, at its best, is a well-designed and engineered building that makes a stamp upon its environment and stands the test of time. At its worst, it is a dehumanizing crumbling eyesore.

[GravityFromAbove]

If the support for Brutalism comes largely from architects, this in itself makes the notion of 'saving' these buildings highly suspect. Architects, along with city planners, and the extremely corrupt construction industry, have a lot to answer for. They have ruined so many cities with their monuments to hubris and corporate feudalism. They have stripped cities of ornamentation and human scale buildings to create lovely crystalline visions to look down on from private jets. City after city falls to the inhumanity of the cult of architecture. So no, only save the most stark and frightening as reminders of the insanity of the 20th Century, and eliminate the rest, finding suitable uses for all of that concrete. The mantra, 'form follows function' is right up there with 'Arbeit macht frei' as a totalitarian axiom. (No apologies to Loos, Bauhaus, the International Style, and Postmodernism.)

[pulsarstargrave]

"DYSTOPIAN" springs to mind as this style of architecture is often featured in movies set in a "dystopian" future; where authority and practicality have supplanted freedom and the Arts!

[MarianelaGuzman]

We have many examples of brutalist architecture in Latin America as well. In Venezuela for instance (which is the perfect example for economic hardship and decay) a lot of cities were really developed during the mid century/ brutalist era. For instance, in Caracas you can see theaters, universities, government buildings, malls, museums and even housing in that style. One of my favorites is the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex. Mexico is another country that comes to mind.

[RavenclawFtW]

Brutalism: a cold clump of shapes and lines. It's purpose is pure function. No beauty, or meaning. It's just there.

[majdavojnikovic]

Brutalist architecture ignores the street, and that is only thing I don't like about it. I like to look at it, visit it, but I would never live in such urban concept.

[bistromath]

There are really cool looking brutalist buildings, but I usually only ever find them by looking stuff up myself. For some reason people who like brutalism always hold up the ugliest, most prison-like examples of brutalism as what makes it great.

[yeager]

Brutalism will never not look soulless to me.

[juniorjames]

I grew up in the 80s New York City. My families originally lived in a very bad part of Brooklyn (Brownsville) until we moved to a bucolic tree-lined Long Island suburb. I remember across the street from our old building was a massive public school and housing complex, all built in the early 1970s in Brutalist/Futuristic style, and than decaying into a hellish, ghetto landscape. No Optimism. No Beauty. This is one art movement that I have no love for.

[s.demchinsky]

As somebody who has owned a condominium in a Brutalist for over 3 decades I can attest to a certain practical nature of the form. However, that does not change the fact that Brutalist buildings are extremely ugly. As concrete ages, it just gets uglier and uglier.

[net]

The perfect example in media i can think of would be the “oldest house” in control, as it’s not made by humans but by how a group of entities thought we would like it