During the last six years, our digital representations examined the tension between the revolution of beautiful sculpture and the loss of human scale of the megastructures of possibility that arose in the Brutalist movement. As an extra A Future City From The Past, Clemens Gritl returns to “the disconcerting vision of a radically aggressive urban development without concessions” and borrows from JG Ballard's 1975 historical novel IGH (High-Rise), adapted to the cinema by Ben Wheatley in 2015.
The premise of the Berlin artist is this: can the presence and atmosphere of a rascacielos influence social relations until they lead to destruction and anarchy? We take into account the consequences, imagining the influence that monumental architecture can hold over society and human beings.
Although the photorealistic aspect is consistent with the photos of the generation of these years, some of the illustrations are particularly inspired by the works of architects Owen Luder & Rodney Gordon and the photos of Thomas Struth: “All the buildings and structures are homogeneous”, explains, “se Eliminate the differences between architectural styles and times and replace them with geometric structures, repetitions and absolute materials. In this deliberate white and black, these “living machines” (in reference to Le Corbusier’s definition that “a house is a living machine”) were rodeadas by endless redes of autopistas, forming a “superbrutalista” megapolis. Our architectural models in 3D can be seen in a prefabricated city in a world of hormigón and asfalto without end.
Image credits © Clemens Gritl
