• PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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    9 hours ago

    Brutalism is cool. I especially like “functional” brutalism like how a lot of Telephone Switching offices were built in the brutalist style during the Cold War to be resistant to nuclear explosions. Efficacy of surviving a nuclear blast aside, it did make them resistant severe weather events which is certainly a quality I’d want for my critical infrastructure.

    I’d also be all for carving bas-reliefs on the walls of brutalist buildings and other hardy art decorations.

  • racoon@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    in case there’s anybody out of the loop: the tweet is making fun of a discovery made around 2010 related to the ancient greek statues, which do no longer show their colours and seem white although they used to be painted

  • Kefla [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    22 hours ago

    Actually kinda what North Korea looks like today. They don’t go full brutalism usually from what I’ve seen, but there are a lot of “dull” functional apartment complexes that are just painted nice bright colors.

    • yeah@feddit.uk
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      16 hours ago

      Specifically the national theatre which is my favourite. Also bits of the southbank are painted.

  • 4am@lemmy.zip
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    24 hours ago

    Let’s not do this to any buildings that weren’t designed for it.

    And, let’s design some for it.

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      21 hours ago

      I forget where (I want to say St. Louis?), but there was a neighborhood where they experimented with brutalist housing. Basically, each home was a single concrete pour. Just set up the mold, toss in some steel bars, and start dumping concrete.

      Each one was dirt cheap. IIRC it was like $300 in materials for each house at around 1,200 sq. ft. in the 1970s. It didn’t take much to add electricity and plumbing, either. The houses are still standing today without anyone working to preserve them, even as other homes in the neighborhood have been abandoned or condemned.

      So why wasn’t this done anywhere else? Realtors didn’t like the low commission rate, so nobody wanted to invest making these homes anywhere else. The half dozen or so that were made came out of the architect’s own pocket as a proof of concept.

      Edit:

      Gary, Indiana is where I was thinking:

      Gary Indiana Concrete Historic District

      They used a method developed by Thomas Edison to make cheap houses.

  • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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    23 hours ago

    Don’t @ me I like brutalism, especially in the middle of the day when the sun’s the brightest. A nice rest for the eyes in a city of flashy reflective shit.

      • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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        21 hours ago

        Very small sample size, but the interiors of the ones near me just look like old buildings assuming they haven’t been renovated. Kind of dated in a cozy nostalgic way, with the occasional bare concrete component. Sometimes has functional limitations compared to brand new interiors (lack of electrical outlets is a common issue), but not due to the brutalism.

  • expatriado@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    government started painting the largest brutalist building in my city, a public museum. the architects, historians and the like living in nearby where like “wtf you doing?” it was order to stop and sandblast