A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO BRUTILISM.
Stout & Litchfield for Milton Grundy, 1963-4James O. Davies/English Heritage aka the clockwork orange house
disclaimer: i know nothing about architecture, just another thing i’m into.
i was watching stanley kubrick’s a clockwork orange (1971) about a year ago, the movie is set in dystopian fututre, it feels post-apocalyptic, this feeling is further excentuated by the set. the buildings are grey cubes and unsettling. there’s this one mansion in the movie that the droogs break into that caught my attention. i loved how it was structured (as i did all the buildings in the movie), i never did anymore research, i just kept telling my friends i want a house that looks like this.
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
fAst foward to this year, me and some freinds slept at some place that looked like it was still being built. nothing covered the bricks, the metal grails on the floor were exposed, we kept saying the house “doesn’t want you to be comfortable”. if it had a sounds it would be ear-piercing noise music. all those expiriences lead to a couple days ago, i saw this image of a house, brown concrete and not too many things to cover or decorate it. i posted this image as one does after seeing something cool, within 5 minutes of that a person who has my phone number replied with one word “brutalism”. for whatever reason this word sent a bunch of excitement into my body, i think the idea of having an explanation to this form of architecture that i had been drawn to for the last 2 years.
so what is brutalisim? a quick google search will tell you that brutalisim is a STYLE of architecture THAT STARTED IN POST WAR ERA UK (1950S) WHICH EXPLAINS THE POST APOCALYPTIC FEELING THESE BUILDINGS CARRY . THE STYLE IS KNOWN FOR ITS MINIMAL BUILD AND LACK OF DECORATIONS, RAW MATERIALS ARE THE FOREFRONT. in a lot of ways these buildings have no soul, in my head they feel like they’re meant to be empty cubes, hollow, inhabitable, they’re meant to make you uncomfortable. sleeping in a maybe not on purpose but maybe on purpose brutalist home i felt that. you could’nt walk around with feet due to the metal grails, everything was exposed i almost felt like i was being repelled (i wish i could show you photos but i didn’t take pictures plus tha’s someone house and you know… kinda sus). I KNOW FOR THE MOST part this style home is considered ugly and dull but i think these buildings carry an attitude, like when your teacher says you have an attitude, thats what i feel. looking back at the time these buildings were created it makes sense, post war bitterness, frustration and anger reflected into those homes.
archillect on twitter aka the image posted
gonna wrap this up by saying do your own research, this is more of a blog entry exploring my fascination with brutalisim than an informative article. in addition i was told there are brutalist hybrids to explore (Eco, desert & tropical brutalisim). probably should’ve checked those out prior writing this but i hope you found this cool, HOLA!
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