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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   31386 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023

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I was not the person who brought up the Pritzker award. It seems to be regularly given to people who were famous brutalists during the height of their career.

If you look at the 2021 winners, in the prize announcement they have some recent pictures of buildings. The top right picture of "Site for Contemporary Creation, Phase 2, Palais de Tokyo, photo courtesy of Philippe Ruault" has rough exposed concrete pillars, which are brutalist.

The award says:

Retreating from white cube galleries and guided pathways that are characteristic of many contemporary art museums, the architects instead created voluminous, unfinished spaces.

Unfinished concrete is the essence of brutalism. Perhaps there was a move away from brutalism in the 90s, but it seems to be back.

Phase 2, Palais de Tokyo, photo courtesy of Philippe Ruault" has rough exposed concrete pillars, which are brutalist

No, merely having rough exposed concrete pillars is not brutalism. And the Palais de Tokyo is certainly not brutalist. Nor are the other buildings mentioned in the award announcement you link to. Not the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes. Not the Cap Ferret House. Not the social houses for Cité Manifeste. Not the Ourcq-Jaurès student and social housing.

Edit: And, by the way, the accouncement also says:

On a grander scale, Lacaton and Vassal, alongside Frédéric Druot, transformed La Tour Bois le Prêtre (Paris, France 2011), a 17-story, 96-unit city housing project originally built in the early 1960s. The architects increased the interior square footage of every unit through the removal of the original concrete façade

If you don't like rough exposed concrete, fine. But why insist on using a term inaccurately? Don't you care about accuracy? And it is not as if giving it a particular name makes it more or less attractive.

merely having rough exposed concrete pillars is not brutalism.

Unfinished concrete is one of the main features of brutalism. The others are minimalism, which this has, and exposed structural elements, which this also has. I am not sure why you think this is not brutalist.

I suppose I should check the definition.

Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era.[1][2][3] Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design.[4][5] The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly monochrome colour palette;[6][5] other materials, such as steel, timber, and glass, are also featured.

The picture I linked to is surely minimalist, has bare building materials and structural elements are exposed. It has no decorative design. It has unpainted concrete, angular geometric shapes in the ceiling, and a monochrome pallet. Why is this not brutalism?

Well, the skylight, for one thing, which is clearly a major design element.

More importantly, as I noted, none of the other buildings listed by that particular winner are brutalist. So, again, the original claim that brutalism is the only thing built nowadays is false.

The skylight uses unpainted metal and glass and shows structural elements. It lacks all decoration and is monochrome. You seem to have a very particular interpretation of brutalist.

When I give an example of someone who is renowned as a brutalist, you say that does not count, because he built those long ago. When I give a modern example of an obviously brutalist building, you point to old examples to claim the architect is not brutalist. You can't have it both ways.

I honestly do not understand your gatekeeping here. The Cap Ferret House uses unpainted metal, angular geometric shapes, exposed structural elements, and no decorative elements. It has a monochrome pallet. Their other buildings have this too. This meets all the elements of brutalism. Perhaps the term is used in a different way than Wikipedia claims.

When I give an example of someone who is renowned as a brutalist, you say that does not count, because he built those long ago.

? Obviously he was doing Brutalism when he was doing Brutalism. But, again, please explain to me what someone's work done 60 years ago says about what style is common now? Charlie Chaplin got an honorary Oscar in 1972, but the films of the 70s were hardly Chaplanesque.

When I give a modern example of an obviously brutalist building, you point to old examples to claim the architect is not brutalist.

The example you gave was apparently complete in 2012. The examples I gave were completed in 2009, 1998, 2005, and 2013, respectively. I don't know why you are saying that the one exception is more representative of the architect's career. And, it is of course very possible that he (actually, I think it is they) uses different styles, or a combination of styles.

The Cap Ferret House

Well, if the Cap Ferret House, which looks like this, and Boston City Hall, which looks like this are both Brutalist, then "Brutalist" has no meaning.

Edit: PS, "The skylight uses unpainted metal and glass and shows structural elements. It lacks all decoration and is monochrome." I am pretty sure all skylights use unpainted glass. And I am not sure how you know that the metal is unpainted. Moreover, how does it show more structural elements than most large skylights?

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