Learning to love brutalist architecture's frosty embrace

Architectural fads come and go, but some of them leave more of an impression than others. Brutalism was trendy fromthe 1950s to the 1970s, and it was intended as an honest, direct, raw style that manifested in blocky concrete buildings with small perforated windows. Even the description sounds pretty heavy, and that's how people responded over time, buildings like the Robin Hood Gardens housing complex in London, U.K., were criticized as being depressing and cold.

There are still many brutalist buildings left (including the University of Toronto's Robarts Library), but the style's reputation has persisted. Nevertheless, brutalism has its fans, and with good reason. One of them is Toronto-based writer, senioreditor/co-owner of Spacing magazine andpsychogeographer Shawn Micallef, and he told us why even now, he's a fan of brutalist buildings.

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