Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Brutal, violent behaviour; savagery.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

brutal +‎ -ism

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Examples

  • It is an important example of the modern architectural form known as "brutalism"-- a fortress-like concrete "boxy structure" with few windows.

    Archive 2007-12-01 Howard M. Friedman 2007

  • It is an important example of the modern architectural form known as "brutalism"-- a fortress-like concrete "boxy structure" with few windows.

    DC Church Unwillingly Gets Historical Status Howard M. Friedman 2007

  • The angry young husband-and-wife partnership of Alison and Peter Smithson banished cosiness in a style known as brutalism.

    British architecture: modernism 2011

  • The angry young husband-and-wife partnership of Alison and Peter Smithson banished cosiness in a style known as brutalism.

    The Guardian World News 2011

  • Even the 'brutalism' of New City Hall seemed somewhat subdued, and to make more sense in this new vision of Toronto.

    blogTO 2009

  • The assignment had been to explain how the architecture complemented the much older surrounding buildings, which I tried manfully but incredulously to do, and so I was surprised to read this Wiki critique of "brutalism":

    InstaPunk 2009

  • Truss beams and heavily-laid concrete formed the desert dome, which radiates a sort of tongue-in-cheek brutalism that screams 1960s American modernism both inside and out.

    World Home Day Collection: Around the world in seven rooms! 2009

  • Brutality and brutalism - moral, intellectual and physical - can be the only consequences of any imposition of respect.

    Only religious thugs love blasphemy laws | Nick Cohen 2011

  • Concrete brutalism apart, the atmosphere is weirdly akin to that perfect stillness you get in the countryside.

    Quiet epitaph to industry: a typical East German town 2011

  • Truss beams and heavily-laid concrete formed the desert dome, which radiates a sort of tongue-in-cheek brutalism that screams 1960s American modernism both inside and out.

    World Home Day Collection: Around the world in seven rooms! 2009

Comments

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  • "An architectural style of the mid-20th century characterized by massive or monolithic forms, usually of poured concrete and typically unrelieved by exterior decoration." AHD

    March 17, 2008