Saturday, November 10
Every two weeks I go through the frightening experience of functioning well with very little sleep.
Several days ago I fell asleep at 11.30pm.
I woke at 2.30am for the day.
I knew by that refreshed feeling.
Time for breakfast: coffee, half-muffin with lots of butter, and a soft-boiled egg (perfectly cooked, of course, using the recipe in the “Recipes” section of the website.)

And then at 3.15am into the daily checklists: early morning chores, blog, contacts.
Functioning well on a thirty-minute nap and two ten minute naps scattered through the day as I felt the need.
No dragging ass for me.

Except for lifting.
I don’t trust three hours sleep to cope with forty minutes of extreme activity.
I’ll lift tomorrow; skip a day.
Avoid a pulled muscle or a heart attack.

That night, bed at 11.30pm. Wake at 4.30am.
A full night’s sleep.

What am I missing?
How can I measure?

Am convinced there is a price to pay.
Built into nature.
You don’t fool Mother Nature.

Fortunately, I don’t lose any sleep worrying about that debt collection..
I have no sleep to lose.

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Question of the Day:
What is Brutalist architecture?

Hint:

Left:
Trellick Tower, London, 1966–1972
designed by Ernő Goldfinger

 Second from left:
Buffalo City Court Building, built 1971–1974
by Pfohl, Roberts, and Biggie,
is a classic example of Brutalism's imposing aesthetic.

Second from right:
The Istituto Marchiondi Spagliardi
in Baggio, Milan
by Vittoriano Viganò (1957).
Photo by Paolo Monti.

Right:
Denys Lasdun's halls of residence at the University of East Anglia
blank space - https://www.flickr.com/photos/blankspace/104583292/

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Tagging Today
Saturday, November 10, 2018
My 214th consecutive posting.
Time is 12.01am.
Boston’s temperature will reach a high of
It will
Dinner is grilled steak and stir-fry vegetables with a curry sauce. 

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Answer to Question:
Brutalist architecture flourished from 1951 to 1975, having descended from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century.

The term 'Nybrutalism' (New Brutalism) was originally coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund in 1950 to describe Villa Göth in Uppsala.
Architects Alison and Peter Smithson introduced the term "Brutalism" to the English-speaking world in the early 1950s.
It became more widely used after British architectural critic Reyner Banham titled his 1955 essay, The New Brutalism, using the term "Brutalism" to identify both an ethic and aesthetic style.
In the same essay, Reynor Banham also associated the term with Art Brut and Le Corbusier's béton brut, meaning raw concrete in French, for the first time.

Concrete is now the most commonly recognized building material of Brutalist architecture but other materials such as brick, glass, steel, and rough-hewn stone may also be used.

Brutalism became popular with governmental and institutional clients, with numerous examples in English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia), Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy), the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc (Slovakia, Bulgaria), and places as disparate as Japan, India, Brazil, the Philippines, and Israel.
Examples are typically massive in character (even when not large), fortress-like, with a predominance of exposed concrete construction, or in the case of the "brick Brutalists", ruggedly combine detailed brickwork and concrete.
There is often an emphasis on graphically expressing in the external elevations and in the whole-site architectural plan the main functions and people-flows of the buildings. Brutalism became popular for educational buildings (especially university buildings), but was relatively rare for corporate projects, which largely preferred International Style.
Brutalism became favored for many government projects, rectangle tower blocks (high-rise housing), and shopping centers.

In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of some 1930s and 1940s architecture.
In one critical appraisal by Banham, Brutalism was posited not as a style, but as the expression of an atmosphere among architects of moral seriousness.
"Brutalism" as a term was not always consistently used by critics; architects usually avoided using it altogether.

Brutalist buildings are usually formed with repeated modular elements forming masses representing specific functional zones, distinctly articulated and grouped together into a unified whole.
Concrete is used for its raw and unpretentious honesty, contrasting dramatically with the highly refined and ornamented buildings constructed in the elite Beaux-Arts style.
Surfaces of cast concrete are made to reveal the basic nature of its construction, revealing the texture of the wooden planks used for the in-situ casting forms.
Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone, and gabions. Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be considered Brutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles including Constructivism, International Style, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism.

Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's functions—ranging from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of the building.
In the Boston City Hall, designed in 1962, the strikingly different and projected portions of the building indicate the special nature of the rooms behind those walls, such as the mayor's office or the city council chambers.
From another perspective, the design of the Hunstanton School included placing the facility's water tank, normally a hidden service feature, in a prominent, visible tower.

Brutalism as an architectural philosophy was often also associated with a socialist utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style.
This style had a strong position in the architecture of European communist countries from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, USSR, Yugoslavia).
In Czechoslovakia Brutalism was presented as an attempt to create a "national" but also "modern socialist" architectural style.

Although the Brutalist movement was largely dead by the mid-1980s, having largely given way to Structural Expressionism and Deconstructivism, it has experienced a resurgence of interest since 2015 with the publication of a variety of guides and books, including the Brutalist London Map (2015), This Brutal World (2016), and SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey (2017).
Many of the defining aspects of the style have been softened in newer buildings, with concrete façades often being sandblasted to create a stone-like surface, covered in stucco, or composed of patterned, pre-cast elements.
These elements are also found in renovations of older Brutalist buildings, such as the redevelopment of Sheffield's Park Hill.
Cladding of the exterior may be undertaken in part to improve the neighbors' view, and cladding itself may bring fire risks; this is widely seen to be one of the causes of the June 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.

Several Brutalist buildings have been granted listed status as historic and others, such as the Pirelli Building in New Haven's Long Wharf, and Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's St. Peter's Seminary, named by Prospect magazine's survey of architects as Scotland's greatest post-war building, have been the subject of conservation campaigns.
The Twentieth Century Society has unsuccessfully campaigned against the demolition of British buildings such as the Tricorn Centre and Trinity Square multi-story car park, but successfully in the case of Preston bus station garage, the Hayward Gallery and others.

Notable buildings that have been razed include the Smithson's Robin Hood Gardens (2017) in East London, John Madin's Birmingham Central Library (2016), Marcel Breuer's American Press Institute Building in Reston, Virginia, and Araldo Cossutta's Third Church of Christ, Scientist in Washington, D.C. (2014).
Notable buildings which are threatened include the Sirius building in Sydney, Welbeck Street Car Park in London, and Atlanta Central Library in Georgia, USA.

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A Good Morning on this November 10, Saturday

We’ve talked about sleep and brutalist architecture and looked at some great pictures.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

Have a good day, my friends.
See you soon.

Love

Dom