Brutalist Architecture: Why Bldgs Should Stay, Even If People Think They're Ugly, Carbon Emiss; Exhibit
NPR, Aug. 12, 2024. - Image: The J. Edgar Hoover Bldg the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Washington, D.C.
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If you’ve seen a large building made entirely out of concrete built sometime between the 1950s and 1970s, you’ve probably seen the style of architecture known as brutalism. People have a lot of feelings about these buildings. NPR interviewed people on the street in front of FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. Built in 1975, it’s a well-known example of brutalism that takes up two city blocks — and that a lot of people dislike.
“I can’t stand it,” said Arielle Carani, a 24-year-old from Chicago. “I work right across the street from it, so I have to look at it every day that I’m in the office. And it’s just so ugly.” Darren Williams, a 29-year-old from Michigan said, “It kinda looks like a prison with windows. Just a concrete slab stuck in the middle of a city.” And Devon Akmon, a 48-year-old from Ann Arbor Michigan said it looks like “a mass of stone and glass without much architectural detail.”
Nobody we interviewed in front of FBI Headquarters had positive things to say about the brutalist style of the building.
“I think that folks can feel like these buildings are out of scale, and they’re maybe not as beautiful as other types of federal architecture,” said Angela Person, co-curator of a brutalism exhibit at the National Building Museum in D.C. “They just don’t look the same as many other architectural styles that we’ve become accustomed to encountering.”
So what is brutalism and why do people dislike it?
Brutalism started in the 1950s in the U.K. One of its pioneers was Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect who did a lot of work in raw concrete after World War II, including housing, religious buildings, and government buildings. He called this style béton brut, meaning raw concrete. “He was referring to the concrete material as being raw and not something you could totally control the precision of. And he just embraced that. He was such a leading figure that I think other people followed in his footsteps,” said Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang, an architecture firm...
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/12/g-s1-6417/brutalism-architecture-carbon-emissions
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- Capital Brutalism Exhibition, National Building Museum, Wash., D.C. On view through Feb. 17, 2025. Amid the Cold War, urban renewal efforts ushered in a “Brutalist” phenomenon that reshaped the nation’s capital in the mid-20th century. Many high-profile public buildings were designed and constructed with exposed structural elements and building materials, including concrete, brick, steel, and glass. They were viewed as cost-effective and efficient, but many haven’t aged well, and public reaction continues to debate their architectural significance.
Capital Brutalism explores the history, current state, and future of 7 polarizing buildings and the WMATA Metro system in Washington, D.C. The exhibition uses archival documents, drawings, construction...
https://www.nbm.org/exhibition/capital-brutalism/
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- What is brutalist architecture? (17 mins).
Brutalist Architecture is one of the most controversial architectural styles. It began in the years after WWII before traveling around the world to redefine social housing, college campuses, and government buildings. It aimed to create a utopia for everyone but few saw the vision. Over the years, the style has seen a resurgence in popularity, leading many to wonder what is it about brutalism that people like.