"We want to complicate people's ideas of brutalism" say Capital Brutalism curators

Capital Brutalism aims to challenges people's views of brutalist architecture, say the exhibition's curators Angela Person and Ty Cole in this interview.

Currently on show at the National Building Museum in Washington DC, Capital Brutalism focuses on seven of the city's key brutalist buildings.

Its curators, University of Oklahoma professor Person and architectural photographer Cole, created the exhibition to challenge people's often negative views of the style.

"We want to complicate people's ideas of brutalism," Person told Dezeen.

"At the end of the day, people can have whatever opinions they want, but we want to complicate it by providing some background, some context and emphasising possible reimaginings."

Washington DC has a large number of significant, often giant, brutalist buildings, as a result of widespread urban renewal in the US during the 1960s and 70s and the post-war expansion of the federal government, which required large buildings for growing departments.

The exhibition examines the past, present and potential futures of seven significant brutalist buildings in the American capital.

For each building the curators displayed archival drawings and construction pictures alongside recently taken colour photographs by Cole.

"Perceptions have definitely tended to be more negative"

These were complemented with renders of how the buildings could be redesigned, which were created by architecture studios including Studio Gang, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler.

"When people come in they already have a preconceived view about what a brutalist building is and probably, looking at the statistics, they aren't hugely favourable of it," Cole told Dezeen.

"So we are hoping to open their minds to provide context and history and reconsider their own perceptions and see the possibilities."

Although the pair personally enjoy brutalist architecture, Person acknowledges that, in general, the public doesn't share their enthusiasm. Along with its name, she cited the style's scale and raw aesthetic as reasons for intense reactions to the buildings.

"Perceptions have definitely tended to be more negative," explained Person.

"There are also a lot of people who've never heard the term brutalism, but still have a visceral reaction when they see the buildings from the outside," she continued.

"We have the aesthetic, which is pretty pared back, along with the scale, which can be quite overwhelming and then there's the repetition of the windows in many cases."

Cole added that associations with communism and poor maintenance of the buildings may also impact people's perceptions.

"I don't know if there is a really good answer, it just brings out a reaction," he said.

"I think there's a stigma around it that has to do with communism. Also, the upkeep – a lot of them could just do with a little makeup, some lighting and landscaping."

Brutalism has recently been in the news as president Donald Trump signed an executive order promoting "traditional and classical" architecture, which some have interpreted as a rejection of brutalist architecture.

In Washington DC, the executive order could directly impact the future of the FBI building, also known as the J Edgar Hoover Building, which was included in the exhibition.

National Civic Art Society president Justin Shubow recently told Dezeen that he believes Trump intends on demolishing the headquarters and replacing it with a classical building.

"We have to make really tough decisions"

Person and Cole agree that the future of the city's brutalist architecture urgently needs considering, though they hope that the buildings can be reused.

"Many of these sites are 50 to 60 years old, so we have to make really tough decisions now about whether we update these buildings, whether they are torn down or whether something else is possible," said Person.

"From a cultural history and preservation perspective – and equally as important a sustainability perspective with all the embodied carbon – how to adapt them and use them for the next 50 to 60 years is an important question for us."

The curators hope that the reimagined buildings, which are by Studio Gang, Brooks + Scarpa, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, BLDUS, Gensler and University of Nevada – Las Vegas School of Architecture, will encourage people to think positively about the future of the buildings.

"We didn't give any direction on the reimaginings to the contributors," said Cole. "We wanted to just encourage innovation and just think differently about how we how we treat these buildings."

"We really hope people will see that it is possible to update or repair these buildings to make them liveable for the future," added Person.

Person believes that the criticism that brutalism receives is due to it being an easy target, especially as very few buildings have recently been built in the style.

"It feels to me like a straightforward target, because by and large they know that people will fall into line in agreement," said Person.

"But to be fair, there's very few architects who are building anything like this today. There's lots of concrete architecture, but it has softer curves and usually more glazing," she continued.

"So pointing to brutalism, it's just easy because we're not even building it anymore."

"It's really evocative"

Along with being the focus of negative attention from Trump's executive order, brutalist architecture has recently been in the news as the focus of The Brutalist film, which won three Oscars.

The curators explained that they believe that the style's popularity in films is also due to its ability to cause a reaction.

"If it's photographed well, or filmed well, it's really evocative," said Cole. "I think it's kind of a shortcut to feeling something about a setting that you don't necessarily get with other types of architecture in 2D."

"I think for movies, it's different, and it gets a reaction."

At the beginning of the year Trump signed an executive order to promote "beautiful federal civic architecture", which the American Institute of Architects said it was "extremely concerned" about.

In an interview on Dezeen, Shubow defended the order, saying that "modernist architects have to understand the world is not coming to an end".

Capital Brutalism takes place from 1 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. For more events, exhibitions and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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