Introduction
Pop culture only recently introduced Eco Brutalism as an architectural style. Most notably a TikTok trend correlated with dystopian imagery. The images depicted large scale concrete structures left abandoned, taken over by overgrown greenery and other rewilding natural elements.
The term Eco Brutalism describes one of many recent interpretations of an architecture style from the 1960s. Its predecessor, Brutalism, is a popular term for the modern way of building large scale structures of visible concrete (in French “beton brut”). I plan to shed light on the topic of Eco Brutalism, the cultural meaning behind it, and also whether it’s actually a style that designers can use today.
What is Eco Brutalism
The year 2020 was a very unusual year. Locked up in our own homes, left with no physical Third Place, while The Second Place (work) mixed with The First Place (home). Commercial airplanes stopped flying for several months, entire commercial neighborhoods were abandoned, streets were empty.
Forced to stay at home, our usual transportation activity disappeared completely. The air quality was visibly better, rain and snowfall returned to their consistent temperate frequencies. After a certain amount of time, in places reserved only for humans, urban environments, it was the humans that disappeared. Wild animals replaced humans, rewilding the city landscapes.
We were used to seeing this seemingly dystopian aesthetic of a city left abandoned and reclaimed by nature. For a brief moment in time, it became reality during the lockdown of 2020. Taking this vision a little further, many architecture fans stuck at home took this aesthetic a little further. Some started publishing online images of abandoned concrete buildings from the former Soviet bloc. Others generated imagery of non-existent large scale concrete structures with impossible proportions, taken over by overgrown greenery, water slowly chipping away at the buildings. This is what is widely known as Eco Brutalism.
Eco Brutalism origins
The Brutalist style today is synonymous with large concrete buildings dating back to the early to mid 20th century, mostly in totalitarian regimes. At the time, using reinforced concrete was the cheapest and quickest way to build. As the former USSR took over many vast territories, the regime needed these landmarks, not only for their functionality but also for the larger-than-life imagery. At the time, the style of Socialist Realism dictated the simple, boxy compositions and repetitive facade patterns, completely outside of human scale.
These forementioned buildings however were not intentionally built specifically in the Brutalist style. The term Brutalism was a label given by later architects, not even from the totalitarian regimes that actually built them. It was the easiest way to describe this huge database of concrete buildings. Later on, during the 1950s and 1960s, a small group of Western architects coined the term New Brutalism, describing more of a social movement than simply a building style. New Brutalism used concrete because of how inexpensive it was, pouring it into sculptural buildings in order to provide community owned housing. While few examples exist, New Brutalism nowadays remains a style loved by many with buildings that still provide housing to this day, as opposed to the original so-called Brutalist buildings.
The science behind the Eco Brutalist aesthetic
The problem with concrete buildings, especially the ones with bare concrete walls, is the decay. Specifically, they slowly start to decompose because of the water infiltration. When water penetrates reinforced concrete, several things happen:
Plants start growing out of the structure
Concrete is a mixture of cement, water and sand. Most of the hastily built structures were built using the sand that was closest, easiest to source. Given the fact that they were supposed to be finalized as quickly as possible, many of these buildings’ walls contain sand contaminated with bio matter. This includes seeds or spores, latent plant DNA waiting to activate in the proper conditions. Many of the overgrown greenery we see in abandoned buildings’ walls thrives from this aforementioned sand, contributing to the Eco Brutalism aesthetic.
Walls start crumbling
As soon as the first drops of rain water start penetrating concrete walls, the structure slowly decays. Similar to tooth cavities, water erodes the building material, first at a very small scale. Eventually, entire building parts collapse as the infiltrated water slowly chips away at the structural elements.
The chemical composition starts decaying
Reinforced concrete is a composite material. Many people know that heavy concrete makes buildings perform well under compressive stress, which is essential for living environments. The reinforcement inside, the steel rebar, gives the building its elasticity and allows wider openings between structural elements.
Less known about reinforced concrete is the fact that PH levels in the building material are important as well. Concrete has a high PH level, making it an alkaline medium, protecting the steel reinforcement from rust. However, when water penetrates the material, PH levels drop, making it more acidic. We call this phenomenon the de-alkalinisation of concrete. This leads to rust also causing a proper environment for plants to grow out of the sand present in the composition.
Eco Brutalism isn’t really a thing
From a sustainable standpoint, by now it’s pretty clear that Eco Brutalism is not really ecological at all. Many people see these concrete structures, youth centers, hotels, institutional buildings and even spomeniks, as alien. They seem like ancient structures, made several thousands of years ago. The reason is actually because water is their biggest weakness. They are quite recent buildings that just haven’t held up nicely.
We can find dormant plants in the sand present in the concrete mixture. However, the cement is actually highly toxic to the environment. Cement is alkaline and so concrete has a high PH level. If you visit a concrete building construction site where the mixture has been made directly on the ground, you can notice that plants stop growing in that area. Contractors often mix the concrete directly on the ground. You can clearly see plants stop growing from the ground contaminated by cement.
Consequently, Eco Brutalism isn’t really a thing. However, if you’re an interior designer or just passionate about this particular style of aesthetics, you can apply it to the spaces you create. If you’d like to see some general guidelines, read my article here.