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Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

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Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#111

Post by hprotagonist »

michaelscott wrote: post #93
yawnxyz wrote: post #48

> Brutalism is a 1950’s architectural trend that was abandoning all decorations, and creating brutally simple buildings made from concrete. They often weren’t even painted to emphasize their brutal nature. So big, brutal blocks of concrete. The word "brut" came from French "Béton brut" which means "raw concrete" — has nothing with how "brutal" we perceive it to be. There's lots of architecture articles covering this…

Correct, brutalism is concerned with total utilitarianism and a complete lack of artifice (the material is irrelevant, although a lot of brutalist architecture is made from concrete). It contrasts itself with minimalism by taking it to the extreme and creating an almost anti-human aesthetic. This makes it appropriate for buildings that are looking to evoke anti-human ideals; churches and monasteries (divinity of God…

> Correct, brutalism is concerned with total utilitarianism and a complete lack of artifice

but, every brutalist structure i’ve had the displeasure to work in sucked for humans to occupy and interact with. They completely prioritize artifice over functional matters.

Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#113

Post by hprotagonist »

regentbowerbird wrote: post #73
_dain_ wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sick of hearing this, it was obviously a double meaning from the start. They revelled in how brutal it was.

I'm no expert in architecture history, but I don't think it is so obvious. Le Corbusier's projects such as the Cité Radieuse or the Plan Voisin, which largely defined modernism, seem to me to be quite clearly the starting point of early brutalism, which didn't look all that brutal. Le Corbusier is also the source of the "béton brut" phrase, apparently.

> the Plan Voisin, which largely defined modernism, seem to me to be quite clearly the starting point of early brutalism, which didn't look all that brutal.

“Raze a third of Paris, it is Too Messy!” isn’t “all that brutal”?

Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#115

Post by jonnycomputer »

The article gives several examples of these "brutalist" design elements, many of them basically bolder, thicker boundaries. I'm tempted to say that this new trend isn't coming from young upstart designers, but from aging ones who's once young eyes, once so appreciative of the subtle minimalism of design post 2008 or so, are not so young any longer, and long for high contrast clarity. I don't know that of course. But a lot of web design just makes my eyes tired. And don't get me started on dark mode design.

Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#116

Post by Meai »

c-fe wrote: post #86

One website which seems to be somewhat inbetween "bad design" and neobrutalism is the dutch retailer kruidvat: https://www.kruidvat.nl/

Interesting site, this might be the first example of neo/brutalism that I like a little. It feels somehow fresh and clean like an interactive piece of glossy magazine paper. Somewhere else somebody posted this site which I would qualify as typical brutalism which is terrible from pretty much all viewpoints: https://secretgeek.github.io/html_wysiwyg/html.html

Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#117

Post by Tepix »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #38

This style looks a bit like the "pop art" of the 80s with its hard colors and thick black borders. I suppose eventually you run out of design paradigms.

Right.

When i hear "neobrutalism" i associate it with the looks of the ancient twm window manager as seen in this screenshot:

https://xteddy.org/xwinman/screenshots/twm-system.gif

Especially the "original" black and white background pattern of the X11 seems "raw" these days.

Interestingly, the twm popup menu has a similar harsh shadow as proposed by the article.

Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#118

Post by bodge5000 »

When flat design was first becoming a thing, I thought the idea was what is now seemingly "neobrutalism". I mean the clue should be in the name, flat design should be flat, which neobrutalism seems to be much more so than what flat design ended up being. Now I don't know whats what when it comes to design.

Either way, it looks nice enough to me

Re: Neubrutalism is taking over the web?

#120

Post by dmos62 »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #107
yawnxyz wrote: post #48

> Brutalism is a 1950’s architectural trend that was abandoning all decorations, and creating brutally simple buildings made from concrete. They often weren’t even painted to emphasize their brutal nature. So big, brutal blocks of concrete. The word "brut" came from French "Béton brut" which means "raw concrete" — has nothing with how "brutal" we perceive it to be. There's lots of architecture articles covering this…

The English word brutal comes from French or medieval Latin brutalis, brutus, meaning dull, stupid. Hence the word "brute". Savagely violent is only one of the meanings of the adjective. It also means "punishingly hard or uncomfortable" or "direct and lacking any attempt to disguise unpleasantness". These latter two meanings of "brutal" seem particularly apt to describe this architectural style; in fact it seems to m…

So "beton brut" or "cidre brut" (dry cider) refer to the concrete's or cider's dullness or stupidity? No, they refer to their rawness and crudeness. The original commentor was spot on.

By the way, a more complete set of the meanings of Latin brūtus is heavy, unwieldy, dull, stupid, brutish.

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