The Eski.Sub draws inspiration from the visual language of Brutalist architecture and the cultural atmosphere of UK grime music scene. The project examines the relationship between design, urban context, and emotional listening experiences, positioning the loudspeaker as both an audio device and a spatial object.
The sense of open space of connecting to nature is contested by the building forms that emerge through the prescribed structural codes and densities. The architecture emerges from the site, topography, from the region's material history-black basalt and wood-and adapts to both flexible and fixed-public and private-programs.
The style is characterized by raw, exposed concrete and bold geometric forms. You've certainly seen it before in many cultural and civic buildings built between the 1950s and '70s. With countless examples spanning countries and continents, the look has both historical significance and remains popular-particularly in residential design-today.
That brought out the cavalry of Vaillancourt Fountain fans to defend the long-not functioning public art piece, even bringing the original 95-year-old artist Armand Vaillancourt to SF to fight for it. But the fountain problems came to a head this past June when the SF Rec and Parks Department declared the fountain hazardous and fenced it off to the public. Rec and Parks then formally requested the fountain's removal in August.
When a National Geographic photographer designs his sanctuary, the lens doesn't disappear. John Dessarzin's Brutalist compound in Atenas, Costa Rica, frames the jungle like a permanent viewfinder: all concrete, steel, and calculated sightlines. Perched on a cliff bordering a protected bird sanctuary in the Central Valley, the 2017 residence rejects the neoclassical templates that dominate the region in favor of raw materiality and seismic resilience.
In Bad Bunny's NUEVAYoL music video, the Puerto Rican artist stages a quinceañera at Marcel Breuer's Meister Hall, an iconic Brutalist structure in New York City.
