2025 | Brutalist Architecture and why some people hate it so much, by Clarisse Soares

What is the brutalist architecture?

The word “Brutalist” came out of the two French words “beton brut” which means “raw concrete”. The brutalist architecture was born out of England’s need to quickly rebuild the cities after the World War 2, in other countries their purpose was to be institutional and government buildings.

The essence of brutalism is to build long-lasting and economical buildings with a function and a purpose, one of the principal brutalist architects and who also inspired the brutalism movement, Le Corbusier said that “Style should follow function.”.

Usually made out of raw concrete and cheap material, the architects use a lot of big geometrical forms and texture and shapes to make them more interesting.

Why some people hate the brutalist architecture?

Because brutalism was something different from previous architectural styles, it is not loved by everyone, it’s more like the opposite of it. Some people think that this architectural style is cold and soulless because it doesn’t have colors and use concrete as it principal material, some people don’t like it because it is often associated with totalitarianism. In fact, many brutalist structures do appear similar to buildings in Stalin’s Soviet Union.