Actual Brutalism embraces the idea that beautiful forms can come from purely functional design not obfuscated by baroque, purely decorative structures to embellish or superimpose skeuomorphic references to building structures from bygone eras. (e.g. decorative columns.) The buildings should be designed to accommodate many people, but the small, modular elements should focus on the human scale. All of this stems from a utopian idea that scaling production can provide functional, beautifully designed buildings for use by all people, rather than just the privileged few.
While the style is polarizing, and there are obviously examples of shitty brutalism out there, I'd say it often accomplished its goals. In my experience, well-designed brutalist buildings are easy to navigate, have large open spaces, have lots of little nooks and crannies to foster human interaction, and have really beautiful forms.
Old images of the Umass Dartmouth (then Southeastern Massachusetts University) library:
https://sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/upload...
https://sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/upload...
https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/58602929_10...
In its modern form:
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/fs/7913213...
(though the architect really should have done more to accommodate laptops in that space!)
This quine is rather the opposite of brutalism. Every single page element adds purely decorative :before and :after elements and monospace font not optimal for paragraph text that hinder its function just to reference an aesthetic from a bygone era. Adding decoration to a functional object to make it "brutalist" is conceptually kind of ridiculous. HN is far more brutalist than that page. Its structure is clear, functional, and largely unembellished.
While the style is polarizing, and there are obviously examples of shitty brutalism out there, I'd say it often accomplished its goals. In my experience, well-designed brutalist buildings are easy to navigate, have large open spaces, have lots of little nooks and crannies to foster human interaction, and have really beautiful forms.
Old images of the Umass Dartmouth (then Southeastern Massachusetts University) library:
https://sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/upload...
https://sdg-migration-met.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/upload...
https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/58602929_10...
In its modern form:
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/fs/7913213...
(though the architect really should have done more to accommodate laptops in that space!)
This quine is rather the opposite of brutalism. Every single page element adds purely decorative :before and :after elements and monospace font not optimal for paragraph text that hinder its function just to reference an aesthetic from a bygone era. Adding decoration to a functional object to make it "brutalist" is conceptually kind of ridiculous. HN is far more brutalist than that page. Its structure is clear, functional, and largely unembellished.