Monday, 30 August 2010  Multi-story brutalism       Christine H.
said...  I had to laugh a little when I read this post, because
I am a city planner and I count myself among those who don't
generally like brutalism. It's not just that the buildings often
don't interact with the surroundings and appear hostile to human
scale, it's also concrete as a building material. Some of the
buildings look O.K. when first erected, but invariably end up
looking post-apocalyptic when they are stained with dark
streaks. I think it helps if other building materials are used.
There are certainly lots of examples of hideous brutalist
architecture, but there are also some that were done well. I'm
not in the Prince Charles camp on this one either.  Peter (the
other) said...  The lines are not unpleasant on this building,
but exactly as Christine points out, it is let down by the
materials. But I find that true of many contemporary buildings,
unless much resources are spent to maintain, they can look very
shabby very quickly.  bru