Le Corbusier and Brutalism

When we talk about the architectural design Brutalism, there are a lot of dualities that could be assessed. The name itself originated from a french term “beton-brut” meaning hard concrete, an architectural style of the 1950s and 1960s characterised by simple, block-like forms, raw concrete construction, rough surfaces, unusual shapes. The term was coined by British architectural critic Reyner Banham, but in the Industrial Design world was known to be pioneered by Le Corbusier.

It started in 1947 when the war has ended, his project “Unite d’habitation de grandeur conforme” began, a building with giant concrete framework containing modular apartments stacked inside (imagine cutlery in the kitchen rack). The building contained hundreds of duplex apartments that can house up to 1.600 people, and later this building became a major breakthrough for Le Corbusier.

Later in 1950, Le Corbusier was asked to design a chapel with minimalism style, a completely different approach of how grandeur a chapel’s design used to be. But this was proposed by the Roman Catholic Church in accordance with the World War II effect, as in to portray the reality of life after the end of World War. Gone was all the shining, professionally crafted ornaments, instead resorting to the usage of white cement, the uncommonly used material as its main material, which he considered the most aesthetically pure material compared to the others.

So was it a victory or a defeat?

To manage a new style of design, yet influenced by the hard memoirs of the past

To come up with something meaningful and as remembrance, yet those points are unseen by the commoner eyes.

Oftenly, people considered brutalism the style of disappearing beauty, consequently with it’s minimalist, simple characteristic. But, looking back to the history of how Brutalism was used, it has more value than the often misunderstood-lack of creativity-design because of it’s simple characteristic. World War II may have been a defeat for humanity, but having those buildings standing tall in the postwar era in which materials and money must be scarce, and to be able putting a good use out of the available materials, is a sign of victory itself. Also, from the art point of view, the shifting preference of style later became a great reminder of what the world had lost with the continuation of war.

Duality

Loud, but quiet.

Evil, yet honest.

Unfortunately, duality does not equal versatility, In 1970 Brutalism fell out of favor as designers thought the style was hard to remodel. Until decades later, as minimalism began to grow fondly to the users, Brutalism began to make its comeback reaching its peak in 2010, and continued to evolve, utilizing the combination of materials that have different characteristic together, rough surface with steel and glass, solid color of white cement with metallic hues, in order to enhance its quality and exterior persona. The bold yet cool, sharp yet untainted exterior later became the symbol of power and elegance, no longer only used in Architectural Design, Brutalism now also used in the world of Industrial Design, Loft life Design, and User Interface Design.

Maybe, those are the characteristics that catch the common eyes. The simplicity and the duality of it, and the ability to use the simplest materials.