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A comment on Brutalism is Back. Parent comment

Re:Brutalism is Back by brudgers on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @04:50PM (#12688415)
I don't know exactly what 'functional' and 'honest' mean when applied to architecture any more than I do when 'organic' is bandied about. I do know that the bronze mullions Mies van der Rohe designed on the Segrams are purely decorative and the high bit on the aesthetics included running all the lights all night long as a signature statement.

It's not that I'm against modernist glass and steel. Bunshaft's Lever House sits on the same corner as Mies work and is one of my favorite architectural works. I'm not even against glass houses, though I think Johnson's earlier one is a better design than Farnsworth...if at least for not being built in a flood plain.

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Re:Brutalism is Back by icebraining on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @05:51PM (#12688819)
I don't know exactly what 'functional' and 'honest' mean when applied to architecture

Well, they did provide a definition for "honest" - that it looks like it's built with the materials it's actually built with.

Of course, so did stone houses for centuries, and they still managed to look pleasing in the process.

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Re:Brutalism is Back by brudgers on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @06:38PM (#12689098)
What I mean when I say I don't know what 'honest' means, is that I don't think that people using that word mean that a house clad in vinyl siding that looks like it is clad in vinyl siding is honest. Nor do they mean that Roman architecture of the classical constructed as opus latericium [1] is dishonest (or doubly dishonest if is still clad with marble).

I don't think 'honesty' (and 'functionality') are an improvement on the Vitruvian, 'firmitas, utilitas, and venustas'[2] for no other reason than Vitruvius backed the concepts up with examples and the examples included everything from fortifications to bridges to temples...which in map pretty well as typologies in which each takes priority over the others.

Perhaps it's because Vitruvius honored those generals, the city, and his gods rather than bricks.[3]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_latericium

[2]: firmness, commodity, and delight

[3]: https://www.yatzer.com/even-brick-wants-be-something-louis-k...

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