brutalism

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Brutal, violent behaviour; savagery.

   “1839, Earl of Clarendon, Speech to House of Lords, recorded in Mirror of Parliament, republished in 1840 January-June, The Eclectic Review, New Series, Volume 7, page 455, Their punishments for crimes were of the most savage nature: and the absurdities of the Theodosian Code, together with the ancient customs of Germany, came to be all blended into a singular amalgamation of refinement and meanness,—of brutalism and bravery.”

   “Instances of misguidance like the ones given, and at least recognized in retrospect, in fascism, racism, and ecological brutalism, are also to be sensed by religious communication in other contexts.”

   “2013, Aimee Gasston, Katherine Mansfield, Cannibal, Janet Wilson, Gerri Kimber, Delia da Sousa Correa (editors), Katherine Mansfield and the (Post)colonial, Edinburgh University Press, page 15, She revelled at being dubbed the 'little savage from New Zealand' by her principal at Queen's College, London, and as an adult would develop a commitment to brutalism by consistently refusing to represent a falsely civilised world view in her fiction.”

2. (alt-of, countable, uncountable)Alternative letter-case form of Brutalism.

   “Art deco is one of the first truly modern styles and a precursor to the more streamlined and simpler lines of later styles, such as the international style, art moderne, and even brutalism.”

   “On the face of it the pair also seemed to plunder much of their muscular brutalism in the building of the church from late Le Corbusier but they have consistently, and independently, rejected any Corbusian or even post-Corbusian label.”

   “2015, Johnny Rogan, Ray Davies: A Complicated Life, Vintage (The Bodley Head), page 375, A founder of the Victorian Society in 1958, Betjeman was a celebrated critic of architectural brutalism and an active campaigner against the march of modernism.”

3. (uncountable)A style of modernist architecture characterized by angular geometry and overt signs of the construction process.

   “In similar spirit, Nigel Henderson, a member of the Independent Group's Brutalist core, exhibited black and white photographs of the East End at the 1953 ICA show Parallel of Life and Art which stressed the unsanitised reality of everyday life: Peter Smithson's defence of Brutalism through the categorical rhetoric of objectivity and truth, quoted above, echoes Anderson.”

   “2004, B. M. Boyle, Brutalism, R. Stephen Sennott (editor), Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture, Volume 1: A-F, Taylor & Francis (Fitzroy Dearborn), page 181, Nonetheless, despite its radical appearance, Brutalism could claim, if not legitimacy, at least ancestry in pre-World War II modernism.”

   “The trend towards Brutalism - an austere style that had its origins in the Bauhaus and is characterized by its emphasis on the building materials (especially bare concrete) and unconcealed service pipes - did little to improve the situation.”