An Introduction to Brutalism
Brutalism is having a design moment. Ever wondered why, and what that means for you, and if it’s even your thing?
It’s good to learn your design history, so you can understand your personal style with efficiency and clarity.
Otherwise you’re at the whim of the Home Industrial Complex, which needs to cycle though trends to get you to continually spend. And that is how you end up with a house that always looks slightly out of date, instead of reflecting a clear, fun, individual point of view, cultivated outside of the trend cycles. Knowing what’s up trend-proofs your house and makes all of this much more fun. It’s also a much better investment for you.
Let’s take a look at a design movement undermining the bulk of the current design trends, so you can learn to see it, and decide if you really love it and it works for you and your home, or if it’s just everywhere right now…
Brutalism emerged in the 1950s, with monolithic buildings, hugely scaled, using concrete as the main material.
Fun fact: brutalism is not derived from brute (Latin, “stupid”), but from French, “raw concrete”.
People hated it. People tend to dislike new things, and also (I think) because these early buildings, in the 50s, were replacing more ornate, beloved structures destroyed in war. And maybe that was the point: to not re-create what was lost, but to make something so different it could not be compared to the past. Also, concrete was the one readily available material…
Brutalism and Craft
Bauhaus was already making its way there, but brutalist furniture, by people like Evans, Jeanneret, Kahn, and Perriand worked its way into a lot of high design, with chunky geometric shapes, singular note statements, and raw, unrefined materials.
Eventually, it worked its way into the American Craft movement, where it found an under the radar natural pairing. Much of the current twist on brutalism is craft based, not high architectural theory based.
Both are rooted in theory around material honesty, but one is much tactile and accessible than the other. It’s studio brutalism, (think JB Blunk, Brancusi) softened by wood, and stone, and natural curves.
(CB2, for example, is going all in for soft brutalism right now, summer 2024. If you don’t like the vast majority of their current catalog, you are probably not a brutalist fan, or even a soft brutalist fan.)
Is brutalism for you?
If you adore richly ornate, symmetrical order, then no, it is not for you. Be super careful with major purchases at the moment. You are not likely to love them forever.
If you love the romanticism and materiality of a raw stones, and the quiet power of negative space, and secretly you want to be a chainsaw sculptor, then this might be for you. Go do some more research.
Either way, the more you can see the historical thread of the industry, the more informed your design choices will be, and the more your space will reflect your personal style. And that’s how you start to think like a designer, and love your space.