Perpetually divisive, Brutalist landmarks around the world are disappearing fast. A massive 716-page book called “SOS Brutalism – Save the Concrete Monsters!” aims to archive as many of them as possible – and hopefully, inspire public passion to save them before they’re demolished.

Two projects featured in the book were destroyed during the publishing process – London’s Robin Hood Gardens, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, and New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, designed by Rewal and Mahendra Raj, both completed in 1972. Since the book came out in November 2017, there have likely been additional losses.

Often described as ugly, cold, imposing and out of scale with human life, these buildings are increasingly considered eyesores, but proponents argue that they’re historically significant and should be preserved. Whatever our personal feelings about their aesthetics may be, they stand as stark representations of the time in which they were built. Many of them represented independence and cultural progress to their communities at the time. Contrary to popular perception, a large number of these structures and other concrete monuments of the era were designed and built as local efforts, not by authoritarian governments.

The book, which comes in both German and English editions, is a global survey of Brutalist architecture from the 1950s to 1970s.

“Some 100 contributors document 120 key buildings from this period, including many previously unpublished discoveries that are in acute danger of loss through neglect of intended demolition. Moreover, the book features overviews of Brutalism in architecture in twelve regions around the world. Case studies of hotspots such as the Macedonian capital Skopje or New Haven, Connecticut, and essays on the history and theory of Brutalism round out this lavishly illustrated book. The supplement collects papers of an international symposium on Brutalism in architecture held in Berlin in 2012.”

The book is part of the larger #SOSBRUTALISM project, a growing database that contains over 1,800 Brutalist buildings.

“The buildings in the database marked red are in particular jeopardy. This is an unprecedented initiative: #SOSBrutalism is open to everyone who wants to join the campaign to save Brutalist buildings! It is a powerful tool that allows fans of Brutalism to communicate with one another across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr etc.”

Anyone can contribute images, information or texts to the website or use the hashtag #SOSBrutalism to highlight a building that might be in danger. The site also encourages the public to join in on current rescue campaigns, and you can browse galleries, maps and timelines of Brutalist architecture around the world.

We come with so many different shapes, sizes and abilities, yet the world is built as if there’s a “standard human” whose access and comfort takes precedent over everyone else. If you’re close enough to that artificial norm, you may not notice all of the ways in which people can be excluded.

A project called “A Sidewalk is a Wall” aims to call attention to one major barrier to accessibility: a lack of sidewalk ramps, particularly in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, where they can be exceptionally rare. Organized by Brazil-based youth disability justice movement NGO Movimento SuperAção, the project invites artists to find a sidewalk without an access ramp and decorate it. Each small work of art bears a stencil with the movement’s Instagram handle so people can learn more about the movement and call the city to request more accessibility.

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Accessibility should be a crucial part of any design that’s meant to serve people. Collectively, we have a long way to go to make this happen, but even small steps add up.

“For a wheelchair user, a sidewalk without an access ramp is a wall. And, according to the latest census, only 9% of sidewalks in São Paulo have access ramps. Therefore, to draw attention to this lack of accessibility, we invited artists to do what they do best to the city’s walls to do their art on walls that only wheelchair users are aware of.”

“This is how A SIDEWALK IS A WALL came about, a project by NGO Movimento SuperAção that took on the responsibility of raising society’s awareness about the importance of including people with disabilities. Not only because of the basic human rights principle, but also because of the obvious and inherent advantages of coexisting with differences.”

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You can learn more about the movement at Facebook.com/movimentosuperacao or by following the project on Instagram @calcadaemuro.

When you think about incarcerated people, do you imagine them as faceless masses, or as individuals with personalities, histories, hopes and dreams? Artist JR, best known for his oversized photographic wheat paste murals, challenges us to see them a different way with a new project called “Tehachapi, California.”

Named for the maximum security correctional institution where it’s located, the piece magnifies a selection of former and currently incarcerated citizens as well as some prison staff, all of whom helped him install the mural across the institution’s recreation space. The subjects include people who are “keenly focused on rehabilitation,” and some of their stories are featured in this brief video. They’re working on a longer version that will shed a little more light on JR’s intentions for the project.

The mural consists of 338 strips of paper which were wheat pasted onto the court over the course of a few hours. On the ground, it’s hard to get a sense of what the piece depicts, so it’s best seen aerially – which, unfortunately, is a view few people will get outside of photographs. You can see an overview of the whole process at JR’s website.

The whole world is watching Hong Kong, where a battle is playing out in the streets between authorities and citizens protesting China’s encroachment on their independence. It started in June in response to a proposed amendment of an extradition bill that would make it easier for Hong Kong citizens to be sent to mainland China, and has escalated as authorities refuse to make concessions. Now, police in riot gear are marching into crowds of masked protestors with tear gas and water cannons.

Protesters escaping PolyU by rope from a footbridge to nearby volunteer motorcyclists
by inHongKong

In an effort to retain control of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (and the rest of the city), the protesters began crafting gear of their own: improvised catapults, slingshots and barricades. They’re also using encrypted messaging apps to coordinate daring escapes from police, like descending by rope from a footbridge to be picked up by riders on motorcycles below.

On r/HongKong, Redditors are posting some of these inventions alongside updates from within the semi-autonomous city. Many of them are incredibly simple yet effective, like gluing bricks to the streets or driving nails through sections of garden hose.

Students from the University of Hong Kong building brick walls to defend themselves from the police.
byu/DustineTetris inHongKong

Who will win?
byu/sadandwant2die inHongKong

In some cases, bamboo poles are zip-tied to the bricks to create barriers that could damage the undersides of vehicles that attempt to drive over them. It would appear that the police used armored trucks to break through the barricades, clearing the path for other vehicles, but it seems like it could be an effective way to shut down traffic in other protest scenarios.

A Hong Kong style barricade set up in Central today.
byu/EDoric inHongKong

Using little more than bamboo poles and helmets, some protesters set up homemade catapults:

The students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong successfully created a giant slingshot using only bamboo sticks and helmets. The campus has been under siege by the police for 3 days by now.
byu/DustineTetris inHongKong

Citizens in the streets are also demonstrating novel ways to fight tear gas with thermoses and leaf blowers.

The new way of Hong Kong protesters deal with the tear gas
byu/OWStep inHongKong

Man used a blower to deal with tear gas in Mongkok tonight
byu/Orhac inHongKong

Observers are also reporting the use of drones to deliver supplies to those trapped inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Thus far, thousands of people have been arrested, some being transported by train to unknown destinations (which some fear to be mainland China.)

The protesters are also leaving messages to each other and the world using graffiti:

We are not rioters. We are gamblers, gambling our futures for a better Hong Kong.
byu/thpkht524 inHongKong

Don’t know if this has already been posted here but this shows the extremity of things.
byu/ThatisWild inHongKong

Check out more of the Hong Kong protesters’ creations at Interesting Engineering.

Top image via u/VaelinAISo

In Berlin, spanning the 450-foot length of the Brandenburg Gate where the former Wall divided the city, a kinetic installation ripples in the wind, bearing hand-written messages from city residents. Created by artist Patrick Shearn, “Visions in Motion” recognized the 30-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

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120,000 fabric streamers, 30,000 of them bearing notes, mimic the banners carried during demonstrations of the Peaceful Revolution, when hundreds of people came together to demand the reunification of Germany. Shearn, a resident of Berlin’s sister city Los Angeles, encouraged supporters in LA to participate by contributing their own messages, wishes and hopes for the future to the project.

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“In total, the installation is comprised of approximately 9500 linear ft. of rope, over 1250 hand-tied technical knots and approximately 120,000 ripstop nylon and reflective fabric streamers arranged in an elegant, colorful pattern. Harnessing available wind, the artwork will undulate in a gorgeous, immersive display… Patrick Shearn is particularly inspired to lend his work to this auspicious historical event and intends ‘Visions in Motion’ to be a symbol for peace and the united power of the people overcoming injustice.”

“‘As an artist, I am deeply moved by the invitation to translate such a watershed moment in human history into physical form,” says Shearn. “In light of the state of affairs in the world today, I feel it is a time to be bold, gather together with a unified voice, and throw our shared colors and our dreams skyward for the world to see.’”

The installation was in place from November 4-10 for Berlin Festival Week, when the city transformed “into a large open-air exhibition and event location” for official celebrations.