Away from a Concrete Utopia - The touristic potential of Brutalism and brutalist sites in a metamodern society

Abstract

This thesis engages with the architectural style of Brutalism, and sets out to explore this architectural style within the context of tourism studies. With its concrete structures that radiate a certain asperity or roughness, its overall monumental presence and clothed in grayness, Brutalism is widely recognizable, even by people not well versed in architecture. However, upon its original conception, Brutalism already elicited critical responses from the public. This critical discourse continues to this day. However, this thesis shows that Brutalism has emerged as an object of renewed public interest, which mobilizes the research inquiry of this thesis. It challenges the previously reigning discourse of Brutalism as an architectural style not worthy of (positive) attention, filling a lacuna by highlighting Brutalism’s potential to serve the future, putting forward reasons against the demolition of Brutalist architecture, and providing a platform to argue for the preservation of Brutalist structures and their afterlife.