Now that the Neubrutalist trend has matured over the past 5 years into a mainstream design movement in UI & UX design, I want to step back and take review its emergent themes.
I won’t go into what Brutalism or Neubrutalism are, given there a numerous excellent articles about both movements. If you’d like a primer, Yaroslav Iakovlev has an excellent article on Brutalism in Graphic Design, and the Hermoine Wright has a great primer on Neubrutalism.
My main critique is, Neubrutalism replaces the core principles and themes of its mid century counterpart for a surface level aesthetic. Many are focused on a distilled critique of Brutalism’s reputation as “ugly” and “unrefined” to generate a counter-aesthetic.
Neubrutalism, ironically, has become ornamentation in & of itself, taking on characteristics of Maximalism; flipping on a core tenant of its namesake, spartan utilitarianism.
Brutalism’s goal was not a counter-aesthetic to flamboyant facades. It was born out necessity of the post-war European shortages, attempting to elevate simple, inexpensive materials by bring the structural raw concrete and steel “bones” out to the facade. It’s goals were egalitarian, democratic, often bordering utopian. Brutalism attempted to unify shattered post-war societies by shrinking the sense of self in the face of a monumental representation of the community (in form of massive courtyards, gathering spaces, and walkways).
However, in that pursuit of those goals, it forgot the human meant to inhabit those, as so many movements do. Trapping the human, dwarfed in inhospitable monuments to the ideals that Brutalism had abandoned them in the process of “saving” them.
The true take-away of Brutalism was its emergent inhumanity in the pursuit of human ideals, and its lasting impact of disused, hulking skeletons of concrete. My hope is that we will focus our efforts on impact of our designs on the humans that must inhabit & use them, rather than on the pursuit of a novel counter-aesthetic.
Examples of Intentional Neubrutalism:
