Given that most of this architecture emerged during the 60’s and was pursued in the 70’s as well, you can probably imagine the mindset that surrounded Brutalism. It was partly based on the idea of social equality and hope, especially in the communist countries (where it played an important role as well).

The idea of unity and shared space was somehow best transformed into shape through the means of brutalist suburban blocks, with lots of open space and moderately tall buildings and houses that have a capacity to accommodate many people

It was also often associated with futurism, a bright outlook on the future, which is how it was presented at first – close to how people used to imagine utopia. But as you know, utopia turns into dystopia quite easily, especially under the influence of the 1968 revolution and among the Orwell-influenced youth.

So thanks to all the uninvited political and societal connotations, Brutalism suffered the consequences of communism being transmuted into totalitarianism, which made the popular culture portray Brutalism differently.

Shared spaces become hazardous grounds, “honest” buildings become concrete monstrosity, and before you know it, Brutalism is associated with violence, which was crowned in Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange once and for all.

Now you can find a vast number of movies that use Brutalist architecture as a background for violence. Defining the reason we find some things to be beautiful or not is beyond the concern of this article.

Therefore, we cannot really discuss whether concrete was first hated for reasons explained and proclaimed ugly afterwards, or whether it was the other way around. In any case, we can easily say that the new generation does not find brutalist buildings ugly at all.

You can even see that some architects, such as the Japanese Tadao Ando, use concrete extensively even today, emphasizing all of its inherent qualities (although it historically does not belong to the era.