brutalism
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brutalism¹
noun brutalisms
- 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 ancie
- 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.
Brutalism²
Where it comes from
From brutal + -ism. Popularized in 1954 by the English architects Alison and Peter Smithson, from earlier Swedish nybrutalism (“New Brutalism”), after French béton brut (“raw concrete”), the material favored by Le Corbusier.
noun brutalism
-
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 categ
Similar: New Brutalism
Translations
Every language
noun style of modernist architecture
| Español | brutalismo |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | ブルータリズム burutalizumu |
| 中文 | 粗獷主義 /粗犷主义 cūguǎngzhǔyì, 粗野主義 /粗野主义 cūyězhǔyì |
| Português | brutalismo |
| Deutsch | Brutalismus |
| Italiano | brutalismo |
Talk about this word "brutalism." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/brutalism. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026. brutalism. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/brutalism "brutalism." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/brutalism.Cite this
@misc{brutalism_2026,
title = {brutalism},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/brutalism},
urldate = {2026-11-07}
}
