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Episode 18: Raw concrete (feat. Kate Wagner)
Brutal South
English - January 13, 2021 11:00 - 1 hourSociety & Culture Arts Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
My guest is Kate Wagner (@mcmansionhell), architecture critic at The New Republic and proprietor of the McMansion Hell blog. Like me, Kate grew up in the South, and like me, she is a defender of brutalist architecture. Unlike me, Kate really knows what she's talking about.
Brutalism is a style that grew out of 20th-century modernism, and it usually features hulking geometric forms and a lot of exposed, unfinished concrete. The British architects Alison and Peter Smithson coined the term, not to evoke brutality, but as a play on the French béton brut, meaning raw concrete.
Anyway some people love brutalism, a lot of people hate it, and we're going to talk about it this week, of all weeks in world history. I hope you stick around even if that doesn't tickle your fancy. Kate is a brilliant thinker, and I've enjoyed her work for years.
As we’ll discuss some in the episode, I’m working on a book about the history of brutalist architecture in the American South. I recently received funding from the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant Program to pursue the project. Stay tuned for updates!
Show notes are below.
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“This Brutal World: Public opinion has softened its views on Brutalism. That isn’t enough to stay the wrecking ball.” (The Architect’s Newspaper)
“Duncing About Architecture: The ignorance and racism behind the right-wing push for ‘classical’ federal buildings” (The New Republic)
“Underground, Part 1” (McMansion Hell)
Celebration, Florida (Wikipedia)
“The Legacy of Sea Ranch, a Utopian Community in Northern California” (Dwell)
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Gruen transfer (Wikipedia)
Burroughs Wellcome Company Headquarters (Paul Rudolph, Durham, N.C., 1972)
Pinecrest High School (Southern Pines, N.C., 1969)
Moore County Superior Court (Carthage, N.C.)
Pruitt-Igoe (Minoru Yamasaki, St. Louis, Missouri, 1956)
***
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