Instagram rediscovered this architectural style and Musement compiled a ranking of the most famous buildings
Brutalism, or Brutalist architecture, is becoming more and more trendy on Instagram. Thus, Musement, the online platform for activities, tours, museums, shows, and art events, decided to study this social phenomenon. In doing so, it compiled a ranking of the 10 most famous Brutalist buildings on the social platform. And the Milanese Velasca Tower (Torre Velasca) is on the first step of the podium with 22,270 mentions standing out among the world’s favorite monuments.
In architecture, Brutalism is a style emerged in the 1920s characterized by simple, block-like structures featuring bare building materials. Its name refers to one of the most used material, reinforced concrete, which in French is called ‘béton brut‘. It is precisely from this term that Le Corbusier coined the Brutalism movement to describe the rough material used in the Unitè d’Habitacion of Marseille (1950). Brutalist buildings often present angular and repetitive geometries that highlight the whole expressive power of their structures.
The style riched the peak of its popularity in the late 1950s.
In those years, precisely between 1956 and 1958, the BBPR architectural partnership built the Velasca Tower in Milan town center. The skyscraper takes its name from the square named after the Spanish governor Juan Fernàndez de Velasco. And it has become an unmistakable piece of the city skyline. Not only it is over 106 meters high, but it also has a peculiar mushroom-like shape. This recalls the local Medieval tradition of building fortresses with narrower lower parts and wider higher parts propped up by strong beams. For its appearance, the Milanese, affectionately call it “the skyscraper with braces.”
Its first 18 floors, together with 2 basements house shops and offices, while on the wider top 8 floors there are private apartments. In 2011, the Velasca Tower was placed under protection as a historic building.
Ilona Catani Scarlett