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*Screenshot from CGTN America segment on Brutalism in Washington*

Brutalism is in the news once again, with founder Deane Madsen appearing on CGTN America to discuss Washington, D.C.’s collection of Brutalism at the Hirshhorn Museum. CGTN reporter Owen Fairclough surveys the deep catalogue of D.C.’s Brutalist buildings and interviews Madsen about his love of the style. Walking in the courtyard of the Hirshhorn Museum, Madsen praises Brutalism’s texture, materiality, and expression of structure, all of which are on display at the Hirshhorn. Of course, Brutalism is an often misunderstood moniker, as brief snippets with passersby illustrate.

The segment first aired on Oct. 5, 2018. Watch the full clip via CGTN America or below:

Many thanks to Owen Fairclough, Ahmad Coo, and the rest of the CGTN production team for putting all of this together. Thanks also to the gracious Hirshhorn Museum staff for facilitating the filming. A gratuitous selection of screenshots from the segment follows.

Defining Brutalism can be a challenge. As a style that spans multiple decades and sprang from multiple continents simultaneously, its definition arises primarily out of post-application by architectural critics (we’ve developed our own working definition of Brutalism). Thankfully, the good folks at Curbed have put together a handy video explainer on Brutalism as part of Curbed’s “Hands On” series, linked below for your perusal.

The video lists off a few prominent examples of Brutalism, including Boston City Hall, Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 in Montreal, Louis Kahn’s Dhaka National Assembly in Bangladesh, and Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation complexes (Washington, D.C.’s J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building earns a cameo!).

Do you love or hate Brutalism? Our new explainer series, “Hands On,” breaks it down. pic.twitter.com/7SFAcD36fe

— Curbed (@Curbed) August 2, 2017

Curbed lists the tenets of Brutalism as

Exposing structural materials such as concrete and steel
Repeating modular exterior elements to shape interior spaces, and
Embodying ethics in architecture through affordable high design

Credit Curbed for producing a brief and digestible explainer on the style: At just over three minutes, it’s long enough to include multiple perspectives about Brutalism, e.g., that it has become a stand-in architectural style for dystopian futures, and that it’s celebrated for its honesty of materiality; and short enough that it’s easy to share with Brutalism neophytes.

Read Brutalist DC’s definition of Brutalism.

Brutalist DC on CGTN America

Curbed Breaks Down Brutalism [Video]