Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media
Brutalist architecture is an object of fascination on social media that has taken on new popularity in recent years. This article, drawing on 3,000 social media posts in Russian and English, argues that the buildings stand out for their arresting scale and their association with the expanding state...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/12063312211019384 2023-05-15T17:33:16+02:00 Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media Holleran, Max 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/12063312211019384 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/12063312211019384 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/12063312211019384 en eng SAGE Publications https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ CC-BY-NC Space and Culture page 120633122110193 ISSN 1206-3312 1552-8308 Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Urban Studies Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development Cultural Studies journal-article 2021 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/12063312211019384 2022-04-14T04:50:16Z Brutalist architecture is an object of fascination on social media that has taken on new popularity in recent years. This article, drawing on 3,000 social media posts in Russian and English, argues that the buildings stand out for their arresting scale and their association with the expanding state in the 1960s and 1970s. In both North Atlantic and Eastern European contexts, the aesthetic was employed in publicly financed urban planning projects, creating imposing concrete structures for universities, libraries, and government offices. While some online social media users associate the style with the overreach of both socialist and capitalist governments, others are more nostalgic. They use Brutalist buildings as a means to start conversations about welfare state goals of social housing, free university, and other services. They also lament that many municipal governments no longer have the capacity or vision to take on large-scale projects of reworking the built environment to meet contemporary challenges. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Space and Culture 120633122110193 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Urban Studies Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development Cultural Studies |
spellingShingle |
Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Urban Studies Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development Cultural Studies Holleran, Max Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media |
topic_facet |
Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management Urban Studies Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Geography, Planning and Development Cultural Studies |
description |
Brutalist architecture is an object of fascination on social media that has taken on new popularity in recent years. This article, drawing on 3,000 social media posts in Russian and English, argues that the buildings stand out for their arresting scale and their association with the expanding state in the 1960s and 1970s. In both North Atlantic and Eastern European contexts, the aesthetic was employed in publicly financed urban planning projects, creating imposing concrete structures for universities, libraries, and government offices. While some online social media users associate the style with the overreach of both socialist and capitalist governments, others are more nostalgic. They use Brutalist buildings as a means to start conversations about welfare state goals of social housing, free university, and other services. They also lament that many municipal governments no longer have the capacity or vision to take on large-scale projects of reworking the built environment to meet contemporary challenges. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Holleran, Max |
author_facet |
Holleran, Max |
author_sort |
Holleran, Max |
title |
Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media |
title_short |
Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media |
title_full |
Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media |
title_fullStr |
Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media |
title_full_unstemmed |
Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media |
title_sort |
concrete monsters of the welfare state: discussions of brutalist architecture on social media |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/12063312211019384 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/12063312211019384 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/12063312211019384 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Space and Culture page 120633122110193 ISSN 1206-3312 1552-8308 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/12063312211019384 |
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Space and Culture |
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120633122110193 |
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