Ugliest buildings in the world? A (fun) beginners' guide to Brutalism

Ugliest buildings in the world? A (fun) beginners' guide to Brutalism | Alternative Architecture

Рет қаралды 28,951

Victoria and Albert Museum

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 150

@BeantownMrs 4 ай бұрын

Loved the presentation and editing on this video! More videos with Mr. Davey please.

@vamuseum 4 ай бұрын

Make sure you're subscribed 👀

@fificrossnails 4 ай бұрын

My father-in-law was part of the team of architects at Chamberlain, Powell and Bon who designed the Barbican Centre, so one day my daughter and I went to visit it…she whispered to me afterwards “it’s so ugly and I hate it, but I’m still proud of grandad for helping to create something so famous and iconic”

@paillette2010 4 ай бұрын

Let’s face it, without Brutalism, 99% of mid and late century film & television scifi would not look the same. And that’s the nicest thing I can say about Brutalism.

@maxtucker7344 4 ай бұрын

While I personally don’t like brutalist design I can understand why some would. However those brutalist zoo enclosures look like the saddest thing an animal can ever live in.

@inkoftheworld 4 ай бұрын

zoos are sad in general with those animals trapped in little places. ~_~

@mirror-images 4 ай бұрын

I love Brutalism particularly when it's supplemented by natural greenery or interesting use of glass, as in the Barbican's Conservatory and in tropical Brutalism such as the cathedral in Rio de Janeiro.

@robw9730 4 ай бұрын

Hands down the best video to come from the museum. We need more of Reece!

@philrittner4158 4 ай бұрын

Good video, ghastly architecture!

@princesspinstripe 4 ай бұрын

This was so good! The presenter does a fantastic job! Another reason why the V&A is my favourite you tube channel. More in this series please.

@DeanWerx 4 ай бұрын

Thought the presentation was terrific. I don’t know who got you to agree to the gag reel at the end, but it brought a smile to me.

@barrymoore4470 4 ай бұрын

Seeing Brutalist buildings through the progressive lens of their designers does make the structures seem more appealing than they would without that context. As with so much well-intentioned urban planning of the last century, there is a fragrance of failed utopia lingering over these buildings. I sense that Brutalist architects were striving to create forms and spaces that would feel timeless, with the irony being that the results would feature so frequently and prominently as settings for dystopian futuristic fictions, unintentional emblems of the oppression and decay such films routinely conveyed. These once cutting-edge visions do retain a fascination all their own, even if the visitor doesn't necessarily admire them.

@lindacsmith13 4 ай бұрын

I'm so glad you appreciate the style. I can understand, from what you said, why it was embraced at the time it was introduced. I worked at UMass Amherst where they built quite a few brutalist buildings and I have to say I was never a fan. In New England, so much of the architecture was based on what the English knew so I fell in love with Colonials and Victorians. It was quite the shock to me in the '70s to see what was going up at UMass. They always were intrepid over there in Amherst.

@overthecounterbeanie 4 ай бұрын

Brutalism is synonymous with post-war Britain - rationing (of beauty), shortages (of elegance), and poverty (of imagination).

@andycordy5190 4 ай бұрын

Symbolically, the generation that saw their world wiped off the face of the earth in the blitz, for many having literally crawled out of the smoldering rubble, the solidity of brutal blocks, not to mention such luxuries as private toilet and communal laundry facilities, district heating, chimed with the times. What's more, the squalid conditions of much inner city housing stock destroyed in the blitz, particularly in poorer areas, was such that my father commented that the rat infested hovels, albeit rich in historical interest, were often not fit for human habitation. Sadly, the recent return to poor housing under private slum landlords as an answer to housing shortages has brought back a huge number of unregulated dwellings where no questions are asked until there are deaths. I'm not arguing ugly is positive or even necessary but the culture of the time saw the design very differently to the succeeding generations.

@hansthefirst 4 ай бұрын

I love Reece!

@RaquelFoster 4 ай бұрын

Fort Worth Water Gardens is beautiful, and I love this 0:49 waffle ceiling... but you've gotta do something interesting with geometry or patterns or else it all just looks like commodity concrete parking garages.

@mariellouise1 4 ай бұрын

So fun ! Learned to appreciate. Loved the editing! 😎

@Vardagaladhiel 4 ай бұрын

I wasn’t a huge fan of Brutalism for many years, but the library at my uni is either Brutalist or in a similar style and I really came to appreciate it. This was really interesting!

@DC-id2ih 4 ай бұрын

I had a similar reaction, but later in my career. Back in the late 80s when I was in college (and later uni) studying for a career in IT, I took a few elective courses on history, art, and architecture, and as a result I fell in love with the Renaissance and I tended to judge modern architecture in the CDN city where I was going to school thru that lens. Because of this, I ended up having a pretty low opinion of Brutalism. It was only after I was well along in my career and had worked out of various offices in a few cities that I started to appreciate examples of the style. I wouldn't say that I am a brutalist fan (at least not yet lol!), but - when it's done well - brutalist buildings are both impressive and beautiful...

@amb163 4 ай бұрын

Is it important, historically? Yes. Is it something that should be preserved? Absolutely. Is Brutalism something I like to look at or live in? NOPE. I like minimalism and functionalism -- even utilitarianism -- but as much as I appreciate Brutalism as an icon of its time, I think it's incredibly cold and ugly.

@kindafoggy 4 ай бұрын

Anything that looked like it would survive a bomb must have been very comforting for the WW2 survivors. The Cold War was ever in their minds at the time as well.

@kellybryson7754 4 ай бұрын

Are there more on architecture? That was interesting

@mccormack_max 4 ай бұрын

Films like blade runner depict a dystopian future, which I hope isn't ours. Theres a reason they use brutalist buildings: the hulking forms symbolise a lack of humanity, abject oppression and hopelessness.

@smallpeople172 3 ай бұрын

I love love love how brutalism looks above and beyond virtually any other style of architecture…

@danielintheantipodes6741 4 ай бұрын

I like a few brutalist buildings but not many. Thank you for the video

@stellagibson2578 4 ай бұрын

Loved this! Would highly recommend the architecture tours the Barbican put on, if anyone wants to learn more about how it was built and designed :)

@juliadagnall5816 4 ай бұрын

I have a certain respect for Brutalism because at the very least it’s honest. It’s a steel and concrete structure that doesn’t try to pretend like it’s anything else. Of course, like any style of architecture, it can be done badly and it should respond to its environment

@yampipampi 2 ай бұрын

I've always thought "Why?" when thinking of Brutalism - and honestly, my initial understanding was that it was a standardized & quick way to execute public-funded construction without worrying about ornamentation or intricate design. However, it's interesting when putting yourself in the shoes of the designers/architects - they had a vision where their buildings would be about scale & timelessness. Grand monuments that symbolized community, security, and simplicity. Unfortunately, the very timelessness led this style to be the symbol of a dystopian future. Lack of maintenance led them to become cold and emotionless. The natural concrete (especially when left dirty) made it seem as if the inhabitants were deserving of nothing more than rock & dirt. With that, Brutalism is a symbol of artists' failed sense of optimism. The "Frankenstein" of architecture.

@GavStrange 22 күн бұрын

This video is great! I'm new to the V&A channel and this is ace - super fun, super informative - great work!

@HarryInEdi 4 ай бұрын

Funnily enough, the three principles of brutalism - memorability, exhibition of structure, and materiality as found - could apply to the Globe Theatre just as much as the National Theatre.

@robblake8999 4 ай бұрын

I don't mind the ideas behind brutalism but the thing that ruins it for me is how a smooth concrete surface immediately shows up the grime as there's no other ornamentation to draw the eye away. All you spot is grime. I'm with his majesty on this one, the old ways are better, and it's telling that they're not as cheap.

@danielcarroll3358 4 ай бұрын

My parish church is in the Brutalist style and the parishioners like it. It even provided a bit of humo(u)r when we acquired a new, conservative, bishop. His reaction on first touring it was priceless.

@timf9740 4 ай бұрын

Make this into a series please!

@andycordy5190 4 ай бұрын

Loved this. A shame their wasn't time for CHEAP, SHODDY WORKMANSHIP,, a really important factor in the failure of much brutalist architecture, in which I would include design (as you say, lost in translation). Also, HASTE, the rush to throw up as much post war housing as possible in the shortest possible time, often led to the former.❤

@catpope 4 ай бұрын

I thought I'd hate this video - But I didn't! Well done, this is a decent into to the beauty of brutalism.

@patrickgomes2213 4 ай бұрын

Brutalist architecture can be nice (I say can but the buildings are few and far between). It mostly of it gets the job done and that's all. But it's a response as most art is to the events of the world. It's not surprising that it's mostly unloved: typically it doesn't do well bringing light and you get the impression that you're in a cave. There's more structure that dominates (cold, lumps, imposing, uninspiring) instead of co-existing.

@AYellowPepper 2 ай бұрын

I think with propper Architects and Artists a Brutalists Cityscapes can look very good! But "Proftit Maximisation" makes everything a non destinct Square. Good Architecture/Art is expensive and labour intensive.

@15FatMike 4 ай бұрын

Loved every second of this video!

@timjamiesonphotos 4 ай бұрын

This is amazing!🔥

@EternalNyappy 4 ай бұрын

First time seeing Reece, and I love him so much already.

@lysem4392 4 ай бұрын

I can't ever be a fan of brutalism. In the mid-1970s I attended classes at the then new École des hautes études commerciales in Montréal, built in the brutalist style. The outside was off-putting enough, but it's what exists inside that matters. The endless expanses of rough ridges of mid-grey concrete cast a pall of unrelenting gloom over every corridor and classroom. I can't remember a more joyless, depressing environment. By 2010 the grey ridges had mostly been covered by plasterboard in light colours. Bland, but the oppressive gloom was gone. I could enter the building without feeling I was going into a dungeon designed by an architect in thrall to the latest ideological fad. By the way, I loathe Le Corbusier, both as an architect and even worse, as an urbanist.

@JULIECOLE-h2f 4 ай бұрын

Wow really interesting I was hooked all the way through well done Reece !!!!!

@timboschein 4 ай бұрын

This is amazing! Well done to Reece and everyone involved!

@astiwine2354 4 ай бұрын

We have a very 'brutalist' City Hall sitting in an area where it is surrounded by modest brick buildings and brightly-painted, wooden - clapboard covered, 3-story houses. It looks like one of the more forbidding-looking German gun emplacements had wandered across the Atlantic from Juno Beach and plunked itself down in the nearest available vacant lot. And if you think that London's climate causes concrete to deteriorate, add a long winter notorious for its copious mixture of rain and show and frequent freeze-thaw cycles and see what happens!! Architects should be forced to live in the locations where their structures are to be built for a few years first to get a feel for the environment and then made to live or work in them for the next 20 years! THEN let's see how they would design them!

@brianhollenbeck8633 4 ай бұрын

Enjoyed all the location shots.🎥

@PLuMUK54 4 ай бұрын

The trouble with a lot of brutalist architecture is that attempts were made to soften it. The previous Central Library in Birmingham is a good example. Firstly, the building was never completed, which meant that it looked more like post-nuclear war rather than the preparation for war. They then filled in what was meant to be an open walkway, which was filled with tawdry retail accommodation. This created a crowded and dismal place that was somewhere to be avoided. I thought that this was a great shame. The design of the building was incredible, an inverted pyramid. Yes, it was ugly, but it was an icon in the city and not irredeemable. It was a sad day when it was demolished. The site now has ticky-tacky glass boxes that look characterless. Love it or hate it, the building that they replaced had great character.

@Katiedora122 4 ай бұрын

Can't let a video about Brutalism go by without mentioning Boston City Hall, which is generally considered the second ugliest building in the US (although I do know someone who has a tattoo of it).

@HouseofDvey 4 ай бұрын

I love Boston city hall!!!

@gregh378 4 ай бұрын

The national theatre and the whole of the Southbank is stunning

@adamwiseman317 4 ай бұрын

I could listen about buildings all day if Reece is the one explaining 💡

@nickia4267 4 ай бұрын

100000000%

@vamuseum 4 ай бұрын

same 🥵

@ardianworld777 4 ай бұрын

I'm a brutalist babe! EFFIN' love it! The more concrete the better! Great video :) Next to that, Love the penguin pool by the way! It's so extra; simply perfect for those hysterical quirky birds!

@michaelbacon561 4 ай бұрын

I think there is a place for Brutalism but that's probably in isolation and not usually where it is sited; often being plonked in a totally inappropriate place, not making the slightest attempt at blending in and thus totally spoiling its surroundings. I believe a lot of it is to do with indifferent but arrogant architects trying to make a name for themselves. It's interesting to learn where the term "brutalism" comes from, because I've always thought that many such buildings are actually quite interesting in their forms and shapes (eg the London National Theatre) IF ONLY THEY WERE CLAD IN SOMETHING MORE AESTHETIC THAN RUDDY CONCRETE!!! It really is an appalling looking material and it gets worse as it ages, attracting grime, rust appearing from the reinforcing bars and bits spalling off it.

@BaileyGoldstein 4 ай бұрын

Reece seems fun I have a new fav host

@piccalillipit9211 4 ай бұрын

*I MOVED TO BULGARIA* 15 years ago - I h4t3d the brutalist architecture that was everywhere - not I LOVE IT To preserve the buildings they have had to clad them, but they are done quite sympathetically, not covered in multiple gaudy colours as they would be in the UK in an attempt to make them look modern, they are stark white or cream.

@michelhv 4 ай бұрын

Balfron towers + JG Ballard = High-Rise.

@slave4glue 2 ай бұрын

You should so an episode on the structures in Dudley Zoo, they are incredible.

@nickia4267 4 ай бұрын

Im obsessed with Reece, amazing presenter. I've learnt so much, looking forward to more videos from him!!!

@AlannaNicolex 4 ай бұрын

that’s my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO GOOOOOOD

@jonnyroberts5545 13 күн бұрын

I love brutalism but i feel the faliure of most butalist social housing projects does speak to a real flaw in the designers visions. I've seen many videos that paint their problems with quite a broad brush but i always wonder how much of the issue was the actual brutalist architecture rather than the social architecture and living concept of the building. The fact that the barbican has been so successful and yet was not built as social housing has always felt a bit weird. This was a great video Mr Davey

@k.k.b.santos5994 4 ай бұрын

Brutalist buildings are an anathema to me. We have many such abhorrent buildings in the Philippines, remnants of a bygone age and the last vestiges of a failed dictatorship.

@marcnawo3533 4 ай бұрын

Good architecture never looks cheap; the host should take note.

@craigathonian 4 ай бұрын

Love SOME Brutalist buildings, the ones with more contrasting shapes in particular.... just as much as i like guys who like them....i'm talking to you, Reece !

@rod4095 4 ай бұрын

I am not the greatest fan of brutalize but thank you for providing a positive perspective on it

@ChrisVaughan-gj7ve 4 ай бұрын

I hope this chap doesn’t forget to pick up a 4 pack of White Lightning, 20 SuperKings and Scratch card to finish off his costume for the fancy dress party. Way better than my rubbish Elvis.

@ejd1984 4 ай бұрын

The Brutalist buildings and structures are disappearing, here in Baltimore Maryland only one of the three well known structures still survives. Morris A. Mechanic Theatre Built: 1967 Demolished: 2014 In 2005, Melvin and Benjamin Greenwald purchased the shuttered building for $6 million with plans to renovate it into retail space and add a 10-story residential building on the east side. Preservationists disagreed with the Greenwalds' assessment that there was "no historic integrity to the building" and urged that it be carefully adapted for reuse. After hearings in August 2007,[7] the Baltimore Commission for Historical and Architecture Preservation declined to grant the building landmark status McKeldin Square Fountain (Preservation attempts failed - ONE person on a business council didn't like it) Built: 1982 Demolished: 2017 Baltimore Convention Center Built: 1977/78 Expanded: 2018 STILL IN USE. 🙂

@kfh123 4 ай бұрын

You love the pool for the penguins? A few weeks back The Economist published the following article on that exact pool: "Why do penguins struggle with modernist architecture?" Quote: "The refurbished concrete hurt their feet. The elegantly shallow pool was too shallow. The minimalist white walls were too white, and hurt their eyes." The pool is now empty but listed. Not a success. So much for modernist architecture. Animals hate it and more and more people do as well.

@kidmohair8151 4 ай бұрын

I, for one, am a fan of brutalism. mostly because you see what you get, and you get what you see. there's also a certain something about the (usual...or should that be unusual) angularity that appeals to me.

@ladyflimflam 4 ай бұрын

Brutalism isn’t ugly.

@francoamerican4632 4 ай бұрын

Brutalism is beyond ugly.

@nardo218 4 ай бұрын

Half my college campus was brutalism! (Temple University in Philadelphia, I attended in the early 2000s). Particularly the psych building, where I took my major classes. It was pretty depressing! I was (attempting to) read The Fountainhead in my senior year, same time I was finishing up my major, so that was a pretty amusing juxtaposition: Ayn Rand's insane rantings about the superiority of concrete design next to the hideous results of her stupid artistic philosophy. It really doesn't age well, any kind of antiquing or mildewing just looks like death.

@guilherm3779 4 ай бұрын

I subscribed thinking this was your personal channel then discovered it wasn't. Suffice to say you should start your own :)

@markholland7322 4 ай бұрын

Actually my brother and myself did a bit of tour de brutalism in West Yorkshire last months - some stunning architecture but the condition of those buildings (bradford shopping centre; leeds university) is saddening. Compared to the generic building in Leeds and other places today, the postwar decades certainly were more creative. I once read an essay arguing Prince Charles with his crusade aginst modernity killed the opportunity to have good contemporary architecture. There is certainly no lack of poor quality semi-traditional architecture being built across the UK

@linden5165 4 ай бұрын

If anyone likes the way Brutalism looks can they please explain? I'd like to try and understand. To me it feels very cold, dreary, heavy and dystopian. Maybe it is the novelty factor that I can't relate to as they have always been present in cities for me. Reece is a great presenter 😄

@johnjovic763 4 ай бұрын

For me Brutalism is interesting because of the various shapes/forms of the buildings rather than their materials. The origins or reasons for their form is always fascinating to me. So instead of being repulsed by them because of their confusing shapes I'm drawn to them because I want to understand them. That they might be dirty from weathering is not appealing but it doesn't define Brutalism and my relationship to it.

@mattcousins3 4 ай бұрын

Went to Sussex Uni based purely on the Brutalist campus!

@vamuseum 4 ай бұрын

💘nothing quite like being inside the sweet concrete walls of Falmer House with a £5 burger and pint deal 💘

@zoompt-lm5xw 17 күн бұрын

Modern architecture will continue until morale improves

@Petermc95 4 ай бұрын

I love him 🥰

@donaldauguston9740 4 ай бұрын

Loved the presenter and I would love to follow his videos. Will you be presenting more of them or will he have his own channel? Thank you, DA

@reneefontenot3659 2 ай бұрын

Here in Los Angeles we have an ugly building. Now I know it's brutalism. Still hate it, but thanks.

@MrWbumba 2 ай бұрын

My old school was a very brutalist building and i always found it to be very ugly, but a few years ago the videogame Control has made me start to change my mind on it

@PhoebePrice98 4 ай бұрын

Loved this so much omg, next episode asap please

@malcolm7436 4 ай бұрын

People who like brutalist architecture didn't grow up on council estates.

@PaulRobinsonOk 4 ай бұрын

Most council estates of the 50-70s were system built pre-fab and not brutalist - in fact an LCC translation of Scandi-modernism. There were of course a good chunk of brutalist council estates but these were usually larger projects such as Park Hill, Alexandra and ainsworth estate, lillington gardens estate, world end estate etc. And these were all rather liked by their tenants. There were some poorly designed estates such as Hulme Crescents but the vast majority of issues associated with the council housing of the time came from the fact that increasingly, council funding was slashed - meaning they weren’t maintained and also thatcher

@Blaqjaqshellaq 4 ай бұрын

Remember the Super-Marionation shows like THUNDERBIRDS and CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS? I think of them as the brutalist school of kiddie cartoons!

@naturetubeUK 4 ай бұрын

More of this bloke! Fantastic presenter

@yasmincassar3491 4 ай бұрын

so good!

@metatron007 4 ай бұрын

It's fabulous

@ton4encento 4 ай бұрын

Coming from Eastern Europe, I have pretty mixed feelings about brutalism - it is not the prettiest, I used to hate it when I was in my home country, but now it feels nostalgic and with the housing crisis going on I wonder if it would have been better to have more of it.

@punkythe1st 4 ай бұрын

#BrutalistBabe forever

@rosskinghorn 4 ай бұрын

That moustache is brutal!

@donaldauguston9740 4 ай бұрын

Personally, I loved his mustache. I look forward to his own series.

@MaddyReid13 4 ай бұрын

love this ❤

@marrrtin 4 ай бұрын

Opening shot of London Bridge, anonymous concrete slabs making no reference to its centuries of history as the oldest bridge in London.

@TheOlliegj 4 ай бұрын

Breautifully brutal!!! Proud xxx

@johnjovic763 4 ай бұрын

I suggest Brutalism and its fans own 'ugliness' as a positive quality rather than accept it as the pejorative of the ignorant and/or haters that it is. I like ugly buildings. They make me look and think about them so as to understand them, they are interesting. They are the opposite of 'beautiful' buildings which offer the viewer the warmth and comfort of familiarity. The 'ugliest' should surely have a special place for that reason alone.