brutalism: the architectural bad boy that just won't quit 🏢💀
Dami Lee's YouTube Short gives concrete monsters the roast they deserve 🔥
YT short of the week #009
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1.6M views / 128K likes / 2045 comments
56 seconds // 139 words
Jul 22, 2023
Dami Lee's "Brutalism in Cyberpunk" is abrupt, modular, and challenges a common storytelling structure.
"The Brutalist" recipe is:
1. Hit the ground running
2. The initial vision
3. Especially if You Think Of...
4. So it was a great idea, right?
5. Until it wasn't. Exhibit A.
6. Oh boy. Exhibit B.
7. Make it stop. Exhibit C.
8. That's all folks!
The beats are:
1. Hit the ground running
0:00 - 0:03
"lots of great examples of what you would call brutalist architecture"
Why it works:
No intro. No context. Straight to it.
To hear people talking shop is always captivating.
Dami skipped formalities to tether a hot wire straight into my brain with the knowledge I didn't know I needed.
2. The initial vision
0:04 - 0:10
“brutalism was thought to be futuristic ahead of its time and actually it was considered kind of radical"
Why it works:
The phrase 'Was thought' carries the beat.
It's equivalent to saying "He's a nice guy, but..."
You know it's about to get rough.
3. Especially if You Think Of...
0:11 - 0:15
"especially compared to the smooth clean sterile quality of modernism"
Why it works:
Compare to understand.
Since this is Brutalism's villain origin story, it's good to put it next to another architectural movement so we know that, for a moment, Brutalism was a force of good.
4. So It Was a Great Idea, Right?
0:16 - 0:27
"the idea was that they provided a kind of blank canvas that could be infilled by people's experiences over time
it was Democratic social morally right or that was the idea"
Why it works:
Expectation meets reality.
After the meteoric rise of Brutalism, we know this ain't gonna end well.
Bummer. Because I do like Brutalist buildings.
Especially the Power Rangers headquarters.
5. Until It Wasn't. Exhibit A.
0:28 - 0:32
"just look at this concrete deteriorates and weathers really badly over time"
Why it works:
Behold!
The cold hard facts.
Beat 5 is a fantastic place to talk about what went wrong.
6. Oh Boy. Exhibit B
0:33 - 0:41
"it turns out people don't actually like hanging out in these massive raw concrete spaces eventually these buildings became neglected"
Why it works:
Make it relentless. Blitz the initial assumption.
If this was a Scorsese film, here is when all the fun and games are over and Joe Pesci is looking for you with a baseball bat.
7. Please make it stop. Exhibit C.
0:42 - 0:51
"but the problem is because these buildings are just so massive and dense with concrete apparently it will create a huge amount of carbon footprint to demolish it"
Why it works
Here, you say: "I rest my case, your honor"
Time to send them off to make conclusions of their own.
8. That's all folks!
0:52 - 0:56
"so we're stuck with these cold raw concrete monsters"
Why it works:
No tidy resolutions or happy endings here.
No problem/solution. No call to action.
Like a good Brutalist structure, it makes you ponder, and gives you space.
To think.
See you next week
Matias Ruiz-Tagle
Founder of Atomic Stories