[HN Gopher] Statement or eyesore? Japan's divisive brutalist bui...
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Statement or eyesore? Japan's divisive brutalist buildings - in
pictures
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 66 points
Date : 2025-02-16 12:00 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| didgeoridoo wrote:
| I get that the "rawness" of the concrete is what literally makes
| these "brutalist", but to my layman's eye, dying the concrete
| almost always makes the building appear more attractive and less
| like a post-Soviet ruin.
|
| https://www.dezeen.com/tag/coloured-concrete/
| makeitdouble wrote:
| These are beautiful buildings and the article is worth t for the
| pictures alone.
|
| Now modern architecture is generally appreciated in Japan. For
| instance the first one, the Okinawa art museum is rated 4.2/5 as
| a destination on domestic sites
|
| https://www.jalan.net/kankou/spt_47201ae3302051347/kuchikomi...
|
| Is the "divisive" bit in the title just clickbait ?
| derbOac wrote:
| There's a quote from the photographer in the article:
| "Brutalist architecture in Japan might not ruffle feathers
| locally but it's considered divisive elsewhere."
|
| I agree the article title is confusing.
|
| On the other hand, I love brutalism and have found myself
| having to defend it lately in a way I didn't think would
| happen.
| DocTomoe wrote:
| Maybe the photographer should stop telling other people in
| other cultures what they are supposed to like or dislike.
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| Sharing the reasons behind one's own like or dislike can
| easily come across as telling others what they should think
| card_zero wrote:
| One difficult thing about it is that concrete weathers in a
| way which is, let's say, not conventionally attractive. The
| architects produce mockups where the walls are wide expanses
| of pure pale gray, but rarely do a second mockup where
| everything is covered in dark grimy streaks. This museum's
| patterns of perforations distract from the weathering rather
| well.
| mc32 wrote:
| Boston City Hall in Mass is one ugly building. Unfortunately it
| now has "landmark" status. Several Calif State Universities as
| well decided to wear brutalist arch as a badge: Dominguez
| Hills, San Jose, etc. I suppose it's cheap, so there's that.
| randcraw wrote:
| I don't think so. No building material is as ugly as concrete.
| It starts ugly and only gets uglier with age as it inevitably
| discolors and crumbles. There's really no way to make it
| attractive.
|
| Concrete's raison d'etre famously serves the ugly underside of
| society -- a factory, a bomb shelter, a pillbox, a prison, a
| slaughterhouse. And of course, building with concrete is
| famously more ecologically destructive per sq ft than any other
| building material. To build with it is to thrust a middle
| finger at passers by while belting out the Horst Wessel song
| (the Nazi anthem).
|
| No, concrete is inescapably brutalist and devoid of charm at
| every level. 'Divisive' is far too generous.
| rubenbe wrote:
| Incredible that there is no graffiti on any of them.
| simonw wrote:
| Apple TV+ used the International Conference Center in Kyoto as
| the location for the headquarters of a weird dystopian robotics
| company in their series "Sunny" and it was perfect.
|
| (The show started out promising but didn't really work by the end
| and was canceled on a cliffhanger.)
| andrew_mason1 wrote:
| come for the clickbait, stay for the real-life star wars
| buildings
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I'm think Science Patrol from the O.G. Ultraman.
| sega_sai wrote:
| I had a chance of working in a few brutalist style buildings (in
| different countries) and I hated it. All this concrete looks
| pretty horrible and is depressing inside. This actually brings a
| point about architecture. I feel that first and foremost the
| building should be designed for people inside the building, while
| how it looks from the outside should be lower priority. I do feel
| sometimes it is the other way around, where the architects design
| the building to win the awards and often aim at how unusual it's
| going to look etc, but what the actual occupants of the building
| will think is not really considered.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| For what it's worth, the concrete used in these type of
| official building tend to look decent even as it ages.
|
| I've seen none of the buildings in the article as they're
| mostly out of Tokyo, but for instance the national art center
| in Roppongi is raw concrete and it still looks very nice
|
| https://www.nact.jp
| taffer wrote:
| The university I studied at was in a brutalist building. I
| loved it and every time I see a brutalist building, it reminds
| me of my time there.
| sneak wrote:
| Why did you find concrete depressing?
| thrance wrote:
| The main building in the college I studied at was called
| "Magellan" and designed to look like a sextant when viewed from
| above. I spent maybe 2 years in it before realizing that fact.
| It was very awkwardly shaped and no two classrooms where the
| same size.
|
| It's located in a very rainy and cold part of the country, but
| the roof was completely flat and often leaked from the
| rainwater accumulating over it. The main hall had a giant
| 3-storey glass wall facing north, and as a result the building
| was extremely cold and a nightmare to heat up.
| lupusreal wrote:
| I hate all of those buildings, but I'm not Japanese so my opinion
| doesn't matter. If the Japanese like those buildings they can
| keep them, or tear them down if they don't. Their country, their
| choice. If I were to butt my nose into their affairs,
| architecture would be very low on my list of concerns.
| voidfunc wrote:
| One of the unspoken problems with brutalist buildings is that
| many are now starting to enter the phase of life where they need
| maintenance and it is expensive compared to other buildings.
|
| Another problem is the buildings are ridiculously difficult to
| gut and remodel for more modern use.
| kjellsbells wrote:
| It never rains in an architect's world.
|
| The elegant lines, the broad sweeps, the little-people models and
| their renderings, all exist on a sunny spring day in April.
|
| People live in a world where it rains and snows and sun-bakes.
| And, channeling my inner Jeff Goldblum, life finds a way.
|
| Net result is that buildings that look beautiful on paper end up
| gray and splodged with rust marks, mold, moss, water damage and
| all the impacts of living on a wet planet.
|
| Why anyone thought Brutalism would work in a country like the UK
| for example is beyond me. Perhaps it works in Japan (to some
| extent) because they have an intense pride in things being clean
| and comme il faut. I speculate that they also appreciate honesty-
| in-materials which is one of the tenets of Brutalism.
| mjd wrote:
| Don't all buildings in the UK end up splodged with rust marks,
| mold, moss, and water damage? I'm not trying to be snarky here,
| I just wonder why it doesn't bother you the same way and why
| you're talking as if non-brutalist buildings are somehow immune
| to the impacts of living on a wet planet.
|
| Aren't there many buildings in the UK where the moss or the
| weathering are considered picturesque and desirable?
| card_zero wrote:
| There's a practical answer and a psychological answer.
|
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Br.
| ..
|
| That's Bridgewater House, which was in Downton Abbey, and
| it's got some bad staining if you look closely. But it's
| covered in details, so that tends to hide the dirt. It's made
| from blocks of stone, and most of the staining is different
| per block, so it only accentuates the blocks. There's nasty
| stains on the balustrades, but they're such fussy structures
| that you have to really look at them to notice it. The stone
| spheres at upper right are, I believe, all covered in pigeon
| shit, but again since they're small details and it's a fairly
| even coating of pigeon shit it really doesn't look so bad.
| The only parts where the stains stand out are on the small
| section of blank wall to the right of the main building, and
| around the entrance. They should probably clean those. But
| since these are small and accessible areas, and not giant
| expanses of blank smooth concrete, they probably _can_ clean
| them (if English Heritage allows it).
|
| So that's the practical side of it: details hide the muck.
| But there's also this "picturesque and desirable" angle.
| There are some deep-seated memes about romantic ruins. So
| yes, some old castle or monastery or cottage can be damaged
| and decaying in particular patterns that fit the tropes, and
| something inside us says "how _storybook_ ", and suddenly
| it's enchanting instead of gross. Which is kind of unfair. I
| often like to think about how castles are really just
| military installations that were originally full of special
| forces waiting to pour out the gates astride their four-
| legged APCs and subdue the local insurgents (especially in
| Wales), and if we could see them through the eyes of those
| locals they'd be threatening and oppressive and not
| picturesque at all. But you can't throw off these memes, it's
| culture, even if it makes no sense.
| tim333 wrote:
| Things like the Southbank Centre kind of work and are popular.
| Just rather ugly. At least being on the river you can face the
| other way and look at that.
| https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/magazine/concrete-dreams-c...
| djmips wrote:
| You assume that everyone thinks that's ugly. These buildings
| with their wet planet blemishes look just fine to me.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| The Tadao Ando designed museum listed is a work of art itself. If
| you can, it's worth seeking out buildings he has designed.
| Especially make it a point to go to check out the Chichu Art
| Museum in Naoshima, Japan. It's off the beaten path, but a day
| trip to Naoshima is very rewarding.
| veidr wrote:
| These buildings are all _sick as hell_ except maybe that first
| one. Also, might be divisive amongst the white HOA enthusiasts of
| US & A, but I live in Tokyo and I am pretty sure that this style
| of architecture is widely appreciated here (and in Japan,
| generally). I know several people whose own homes that try to
| rock this raw concrete block style, although a regular person's
| home can't typically get too wild -- maybe a stack of 3 concrete
| boxes, on tilt just a little bit if they're lucky.
|
| Those houses are dope, though -- wish I had one instead of my
| boring-but-nice apartment.
|
| Every time I ride my bike to work, I have the good fortune to
| pass right by the Supreme Court building; check out this savage
| brute:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Japan#/media/...
| akomtu wrote:
| This is a toy version of the Giedi Prime's architecture from
| Dune: colorless oppressive-scale buildings that try to instill
| fear.
| yapyap wrote:
| It looks pretty in pictures but I don't know how enjoyable I'd
| find it if some of these were part of my daily life.
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(page generated 2025-02-16 23:02 UTC)