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How does Cyberpunk 2077’s use of brutalist architecture differ from what you may know from other Cyberpunk media like Blade Runner? This video explores the origin of brutalism, how it’s used in Cyberpunk 2077 and what the use of brutalist architecture means.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:40 – What is Brutalism?
03:20 – How does Cyberpunk 2077 use Brutalism?
07:26 – Conclusion
Worldview explores the connection between real-world concepts/entities and virtual worlds.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspC4wMGjqi8mnlhZ_5vN8g?sub_confirmation=1
Image credits – In order of appearance:
Joop van Bilsen / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Iantomferry, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Alison & Peter Smithson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Reyner Banham, Fair use
source
Just a few corrections and notes:
– The Smithsons didn’t coin the term “New Brutalism” – Hans Asplund did in 1949
– My pronounciation of names is probably horribly wrong (Especially Le Corbusier)
Further viewing:
Polygon has an excellent video on brutalism in Control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n7ylXPueYE
An actual architect talks about the architecture of Night City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IklZS20rJoI
Might have been interesting to mention that CP is developed by a polish studio, poland having been part of the soviet block wich is known for its dystopian brutalist architecture
Nice content dude, you are underrated <3 keep on it
This game has insane architectural detail. Whenever I play the game I just end up looking up at these massive buildings with my jaw open. It's truely breathtaking
This makes me want to play Cyberpunk again and I have 400 hours in it.
I really appreciate the breakdown of this real world architectural style as seen through the lens of this game. Well done and thank you!
Great video. You truly are an underrated channel.
Night City is very fun to look at. If anyone is intetested in more examples of Brutalism, look up Quake Brutalism Jam. It's a map pack for OG Quake that centers brutalism and concrete as the central theme.
Permacrete is the name for material in Night City.
This is a really well-researched and reasoned analysis, especially with the political context of Brutalism. The production quality easily made me think this was a much larger channel. I'm definitely keeping my eye here to see more
Cuz it is built different
TL;DW it's aggressively European
I'd argue that the painted-over megabuilding and similar which are otherwise Brutalist add yet another layer – If Brutalism in the game symbolizes failure, the painted over sections show how the world deals with failure: Add a thin coating over the top to make it appear to be something closer to the ideal, without dealing with the underlying root cause. In fact they continue to build megabuildings on the same plans, and continue to paint over them – the causes are never addressed, and the veneer is accepted as a solution.
why can't all these idiots just go back to brutalism is simple and represents the people. How does a glass building where everyone can watch you get dressed in the morning mean more to people than a building with windows and simple concrete structure
ok so im not crazy. it actualy was brutalism
So, it's almost like Night City is a giant monument celebrating the victory of capitalism over socialism. Too bad there isn't some humility mixed in there as well.
Brutalist structures with fancy paint…
Neo-brutalism mayhaps?
New cyberpunk moving away from pure brutalism was becuase when the genre was developing the failure and decline of the American capitalist system was seen as almost inevitable. So any portrayal of the future was going to be one involving desperation or squalor. Be it from a challenge from the USSR or a rising Japan. (This is why Japanese corporations play such a big role in it usually).
When both economic systems suffered spectacular failures around the same time period, the idea that the steel-and-glass look of a traditional American city started to creep back into it, in addition to the brutalist almost Eastern European concrete apartment blocks. An impoverished west needing to adopt socialist-style housing and nationalization just wasn’t plausible anymore.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example of the genre as it is today, not as it was in the 1970s. Deus ex is another good example. Massive communal apartment buildings at the time were seen as the way of the future, a new age of equitable city design. Now indeed they are seen as symbols of failure. (In former Warsaw Pact nations living in one of these old buildings with a carpet on the wall is seen as old fashioned, something your grandparents or parents do, and younger people want European or American style modern living spaces)
A product of leftism used as a symbol for failiure…
Based.
Cyberpunk is a beautiful game with an amazing soundtrack. The team must have sunk most of their time into the visuals and audio and left the rest as an afterthought. I just wish the AI worked better, enemies were smarter, and there were more random encounters with more ways to take advantage of your unique attributes and abilities.
too bad it's an unplayable piece of sh*t.
Might be an unpopular take but Night City is what will make Cyberpunk 2077 outlast many other open world games that will be released after it. People will come back to it because out of many failures that Cyberpunk 2077 had, Night City isn't one of them.
Commenting late (binging Edgerunner has brought me back to 2077 and my youtube algorithm reflects that). I think what needs to be considered is that CD Projeckt Red are from Poland a former communist state. Brutalist communist architecture is very common there and is probably a great indicator of the failure of communism and a reminder of the dehumanizing conditions that people lived under communist rule. While 2077 shows a hyper (crony) capitalist dystopia the inspiration for getting that dystopic feel is for the devs to take the dystopic atmosphere their parent's faced under communism (and some of the older members may have seen in their childhoods) and turn it capitalist by plastering adverts over it.
cyberpunk feel more like judge dread
Not to be too critical but your voice sounds like your talking quietly as if not to disturb someone in the next room. It's super annoying. Also get a pop filter and use less EQ on the low end. Everybody's voice sounds better with more bass EQ until it doesn't. And everybody goes too far with that when they start off. I honestly can barely stand to listen to your voice as it is in this video. But it doesn't have to be this way though, see what you can do to fix these issues.
Great video
Omfg, literally my favorite topic of all time – exploring the architecture (especially brutalism) in games.
Настоящий брутализм — советский брутализм.
It's metabolist architecture not brutalist. Brutalism comes from the French term béton brut "raw concrete"
I just couldn't get into the bright sunny Night City so modded it to rain a lot more often. Brute weather. lol
There is a good chanve this choise is also influenced by the fact that the developers are East European and this reflects the architecture they see every day
However poor the state the game was in at launch its impossible to deny how beautiful the games environment is.
Thank you for covering this game's architecture ! I think it is still the most impressive city in any video game.
The video was very well put together, I wish it was longer haha. I can't wait to watch more videos from you. You deserve WAY MORE subscribers !
Well done! These shots were great and you absolutely nailed it!
a very well-made video
My friend, the welfare state never failed it was dismantled.