What brutalist architecture can teach us about web3 (featuring Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson) ⬇️🧵:

1/ Brutalism wasn’t just a style, it was an ideology.

Raw and deeply idealistic. Arthur Erickson, Canada’s concrete poet, believed in designing for people, not power.

While I’m currently admiring Ericksons work, let’s talk about how brutalism and Web3 speak a similar language..

2/  “Architecture, as in life, is not a question of the obvious but the mysterious.” -Arthur Erickson

Brutalism embraced the mystery of structure. Concrete left exposed, no lies, no façades.

Web3 is similar:
→ Transparent code
→ Public ledgers

5/ “Architecture should flow. It should move people. Not just physically, but emotionally.”

Erickson softened brutalism.
He added light, water, rhythm.

Web3 must do the same:
→ Human-centric UX
→ Emotional interfaces
→ Ritual, not just protocol

4/ “The site is the beginning of the building. Its orientation, its climate, the quality of its light.”

Erickson didn’t impose form he co-created with the land.

Web3, too, must build in context:
→ With communities
→ With culture
→ With respect for digital terrain

3/ Erickson’s Simon Fraser University wasn’t built to impress, it was built to include with concrete terraces open to sky and student.

That’s the Web3 spirit:
→ Permissionless access
→ Decentralized knowledge
→ No elites, just nodes (supposedly)