2026-02-12 09:40 UTC
@garyhall@hcommons.social it is ugly, it's just so ugly that it's important that it's preserved so we know what not to do!
Replies (1)
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@garyhall@hcommons.social 2026-02-12 10:24
The South Bank is definitely one of those places people either love or hate. But brutalism is clearly having a moment. You can now do tours of brutalist Coventry. Even the Thamesmead estate from A Clockwork Orange is being defended against demolition. What interests me is how quickly yesterday’s ‘ugly’, working-class, municipal modernism becomes today’s heritage asset once it’s rebranded, curated and folded back into the prestige economy. Concrete doesn’t change as fast as cultural value does. The question I’m raising with Defund Culture is who gets to decide when something shifts from ‘eyesore’ to ‘icon’? And who benefits from that shift.