Has Brutalist Architecture Hit the Saturation Point?
Its name doesn’t inspire a sense of coziness, comfort, or even glamour, yet Brutalist architecture—the postwar style that pinned its hopes on the possibilities of poured concrete—seems to be back in the zeitgeist. Of course, it never really left: For decades, its detractors have been waging a war of attrition against its somewhat severe and aggressively modernist aesthetic with a policy tactic known as “active neglect.” Boston’s City Hall has been controversial since it was unveiled in 1968. (According to 99% Invisible producer emeritus Avery Trufelman, government officials chose to ignore the building, allowing it to gradually deteriorate, which has only served to make it less attractive and thus an object of more focused scorn.)
