Cover Art

In some ways, brutalism is related to minimalism in general philosophy, but there are key differences. Minimalism also takes a less-is-more approach, reducing design to its essential elements. At the same time, it usually doesn’t go as far as stripping a design down to bareness.

The brutalist approach has less to do with austerity and more to do with celebrating the few design elements that are present. For example, many brutalist buildings use raw concrete in over-the-top arrangements that would make a minimalist shudder. In this way, a brutalist design can be contradictorily more extravagant and more extremely minimalist than an actual minimalist design.