Sunday, December 8

Deconstruction and Brutalism, versus or evolution in expression against modernism.

I am already in chapter 8 of my book, Interior design since 1900 by Anne Massey, and while I was reading about post modernism and movements that where developed during that time (around 1980´s) a picture of the Deconstruction Movement caught my eye

Post-modernist movements where all about being against modernism and their clean lines, really square in a way, all planned, and with no emotions (like critics to that movement described in that time). Seeing this image make me  think and realize that Deconstructivism was not following the path of recovering past styles, and mixing them all in one space, they didn’t want to represent this pluralism in styles; instead they wanted to show the chaos, a chaos produced by the lack of emotional link with spaces. In this picture I see reflected different paths and when you see the mix of the stairs, ramps and windows, I think that is exactly the feeling of the time, people simply didn’t know where to go from modernism, what where they supposed to do after experienced such a clean , simple and stiff (in a way) movement.  You can feel the sense of freedom ,of  letting go , because you still see clean lines, and reduced types of and materials  to keep the simplicity also in textures and colors , but it’s like an explosion if it, an explosion of modernism.
You can get an idea of concrete and metal in the image, and this materials made me remember Brutalism and as read in this book there was a rebirth of this movement (for a short time) during this period also.
 But what was Brutalism, Brutalism was also a reaction to Modernism( in my  opinion ) it used  a lot of concrete and really hard materials, the whole purpose of this was to create really “heavy” looking environments, some called it Modernism but for me it’s totally not, instead Brutalism was a reaction to modernism just like Deconstructivism. Instead of representing energy, freedom and chaos provoked by all this new paths that you could take, Brutalism represented the oppression felt during the modernist times, feeling of being trapped.

I know it sounds weird, being trapped in a clean line, spacious, minimal space. But in a way all that simplicity took away the connection with the person, and the feeling of protection provided by the home.
Obviously they both represented different feelings and reactions because Brutalism was mainly developed at the same time than modernism, while by the other hand Deconstructivism was a Post Modern movement. So for this I would link both of them as an evolution of the reaction provoked by the difference in the context in which each was developed.
At the same time if you made me choose I would definitely pick the Deconstruction movement. I really enjoy the fact that is a representation of the freedom felted, and if you watch different Deconstuctivist  interiors or constructions, you can find that link to Modernism to the simplicity of it, it doesn’t make you feel trapped, you still have the air, light and clean lines but in a more creative way, making it feel more human, because its expressing emotions, emotions that maybe in the Modernist movement where masked by the looks of a “perfect space”.


F!


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