When you combine it with plants it’s cool as shit. The Barbican district of London:
adding onto this with the alexandra road estate
Love walking through the barbican it makes me feel so smol, photos don’t really do the scale justice those concrete pillars are huge
Yea I don’t know what to call it, green brutalism? Eco brutalism? Either way the combo of plants + all that blocky concrete looks so good to me
Brutalism can look absolutely amazing when paired with plants, and stands pretty decently on its own. Brutalism also does great when next to other architecture so it has a chance to stand out.For me, it’s a case-by-case thing. This KFC? Dope as hell. Cybertruck? Looks like shit.
Visually it can be nice if it isn’t the only thing around anywhere. Juxtaposition of brutalist architecture and nature is imo very very appealing.
But I have a hunch it is a wasteful type of architecture. Don’t need a building that “sturdy” unless you are trying to shrug off an army or a hurricane, not at the fried chicken shack
I understood its main benefits being that it was both fairly cheap to construct and inherently well insulated. As far as sustainability goes I can’t see it making a good coffee stand and I think there’s some sort of looming concrete grade sand shortage (?) due to our misuse/addiction to paving things.
looming concrete grade sand shortage
Not really, there’s a looming shortage of cheap riverbed sand near construction projects but you can just crush glass and get a suitable substitute
Thanks, I didn’t know the details & it seemed bizarre; just a half remembered article fragment I guess.
Oh it’s not you, there are lots of articles written about it that don’t mention it’s not an actual problem unless you’re a sand mining company that wants to continue to rip up river ecosystems
Concrete is a material where small mistakes can cause lasting damage. Heavy use of concrete in hot climates requires a ton of air conditioning. In cold climates, small mistakes lead to a lot of cracks which makes heating hard. Old Soviet brutalist architecture had a lot of teeny tiny mistakes in the concrete which makes them difficult to live in and expensive to heat and cool.
Concrete is also hugely polluting from a carbon emissions perspective
3rd largest emission source behind transportation and power gen iirc
The good thing is we’re working on it. Concrete usage isn’t going to slow down any time soon, but adjusting the chemistry to be less polluting or (ideally) carbon neutral would have massive benefits to ecology.
Horrible when evil commies do it, wonderful and innovative and novel when capitalists copy it wholesale.
There’s the eastern bloc brutalism, but how about the kind of concrete constructions found in Brazil e.g. Niemeyer?
Brutalism is peak when it’s done with actual care for aesthetics. Concrete can be poured into all sorts of interesting shapes and designs, and with added colour or plants you can get some really interesting building designs
But a lot of brutalism is just Block ™ which obviously doesn’t really work out
I have lived a big part of my life in Soviet style concrete apartment buildings (khrushchevka) that are brutal architecture inspired afaik. Essentially various kinds of concrete blocks. When they are in the middle of a lot of greenery, trees and parks and the area is a bit older, they are pretty much what a suburb is understood as where I live. If they are kept well and maintained I think they are very cool.
If the colonel had an official headquarters where he conducts operations from, that would be it.
I hate it. I understand it’s occasional necessity (the US needs some commie blocks last century) but I strongly dislike it as an aesthetic. Cities should be beautiful to look at and be in, and brutalism is neither of those things.
It’s cool and good, especially with a lot of natural greenery added. Shouldn’t be the only style though, and the op pic is dog shit, capitalism ruins everything.
I hate it. I know that’s an unpopular opinion here but whatever. Also I’ve seen all the “brutalism done right” examples people trot out when I express this opinion and they still suck.
It can be very good and it can also be pretty bad.
This is brutal
This is not brutal
