Tucker Carlson's speech on brutalist architechture

[Reformed Covenanter]

Some very interesting thoughts from Tucker Carlson on the unnatural and dehumanising fad of brutalist architecture.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1424790804812505095

 

[Scynne]

As a fan of Brutalist architecture, I respectfully disagree. Firstly, it is one of the few schools of architecture I find beautiful. Second, I appreciate the honesty of brutalist buildings; they don't pretend to be anything other than a dehumanizing container for dehumanizing institutions or housing. They seek to be proud of the materials from which they are constructed instead of attempting to hide it all behind a facade. It's much more natural for this respect of material instead of neoclassicalism's utter rejection of the natural.

I'll take a brutalist blandscape over Budapest, Prague, or Venice any day of the week.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

I didn't know what it was. It's pretty ugly but I don't know if it goes deeper than that.

 

[VictorBravo]

It's much more natural for this respect of material instead of neoclassicalism's utter rejection of the natural.

I had never heard of it before. Would a plain log cabin or pole barn fall into this category too? If so, then I like it too.

 

[bookslover]

Long Beach, California (my home town) had one of those beautiful old Carnegie library buildings (built in 1909). I loved wandering around in it as a young man. In the middle 1970s, it was demolished and replaced with an extremely ugly Brutalist building, along with an extremely ugly city hall building right beside it. Now, nearly half a century later, both buildings have been closed. The new library looks like a modernist office building, but at least it's not another Brutalist building.

Brutalist architecture always looks as if the contractor got a good deal on cement.

 

[Scynne]

I had never heard of it before. Would a plain log cabin or pole barn fall into this category too? If so, then I like it too.

Alas, Brutalist architecture is intended for dense urban zoning, and it is the material of city living that it wears proudly. Think hard, unyielding cement. Then stop thinking.

 

[Phil D.]

Would a plain log cabin or pole barn fall into this category too? If so, then I like it too.

Brutalist architecture, properly defined, only originated in the 1950's, and is considered an architectural wing of "modernist" design/art and expression. Personally, I find some examples to be tolerable while most are grotesque or even freakish. At the same time, I find many examples of Baroque architecture appealing, while some can be grotesque and freakisk.

 

[RamistThomist]

I had never heard of it before. Would a plain log cabin or pole barn fall into this category too? If so, then I like it too.

No. Those buildings have order and symmetry and so in a limited way reflect the mind of God. As such, they participate in the universal of Beauty.

 

[Scynne]

No. Those buildings have order and symmetry and so in a limited way reflect the mind of God. As such, they participate in the universal of Beauty.

I get not liking it, and I'm not here to proselytize you, but it seems an odd criticism to me.
There's plenty of asymmetry in God's nature. I doubt strongly that it is purely a result of the fall. I can't think of a single example outside human or animal faces where I prefer symmetry over asymmetry, though I'm open to the possibility that is because of sin's influence that still lurks within me. Plus, early brutal buildings are quite symmetrical, which is why I tend to prefer later structures of this style.
Brutalism is probably one of the most formally 'ordered' architecture schools. Some later, more postmodern-influenced work (some would argue isn't proper Brutalism, though I am happy enough to include it) gets a little bit shapes-for-the-sake-of-shapes, but there is still an order of concept and purposeful utility of design to it that far transcends most other building design, perhaps only outdone by pure industrial/agricultural design. So would you consider early Brutalist constructs to be highly reflective of the mind of God, participating in the universal of Beauty?

 

[Charles Johnson]

I took many of my classes in undergrad at the University of Illinois's Foreign Language Building, which beside being red brick rather than cement was quite brutalist. I personally found the design quite beautiful, especially on the inside, where the lobby featured a four story high ceiling and an inverse-pyramidal shape that allowed a lot of light to filter down from the top. The whole thing was very symmetrical. I also like University of Pittsburgh's Posvar hall, another brutalist upside-down pyramid, although that one is concrete. I do prefer traditional arquitecture for its color, regional distinctiveness, and quaintness, but I don't mind good examples of brutalist arquitecture any more than modern buildings. But bad brutalist arquitecture is admittedly quite bad.