Brutalism Is Back
Brutalism was an
attempt to create
an architectural
ethic, rather than
an aesthetic. It
had less to do with
materials and more
to do with honesty:
an uncompromising
desire to tell it
like it is,
architecturally speaking.
.. The Modern movement in architecture had supposedly been predicated on truthfulness in materials and forms, as well. But as a dreary stroll down Park Avenue will remind you, Modernism swiftly became a gutless orthodoxy, its high ideals devolving into the rote features of the International Style, a repetitive and predictable series of gestures (curtain walls or ribbon windows, recessed plinths, decorative piloti, windswept plazas, ornamental lawns and flat shimmering pools).
What was and still is appealing about Brutalism is that it had a kind of purity to it.
.. The Modern movement in architecture had supposedly been predicated on truthfulness in materials and forms, as well. But as a dreary stroll down Park Avenue will remind you, Modernism swiftly became a gutless orthodoxy, its high ideals devolving into the rote features of the International Style, a repetitive and predictable series of gestures (curtain walls or ribbon windows, recessed plinths, decorative piloti, windswept plazas, ornamental lawns and flat shimmering pools).
What was and still is appealing about Brutalism is that it had a kind of purity to it.