MILAN’S VELASCA TOWER IS INSTAGRAM’S MOST FAMOUS BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE

In architecture, brutalism is a style characterized by simple block structures. Its name refers to one of the most used materials, reinforced concrete, which in French is called “béton brut”. It is precisely from this term that Le Corbusier coined the brutalist movement to describe the raw material used in the Unitè d’habitacion in Marseille (1950), which has become an example of the style, so much so that it has influenced many other buildings throughout Europe and highlights the expressive power of the structure. Brutalist buildings often have angular and repetitive geometries, which highlight the entire expressive power of their architecture. The style reached the height of its popularity at the end of the 1950s and it was in those years, precisely between 1956 and 1958, that Studio BBPR (Gian Luigi Banfi, Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, Ernesto Nathan Rogers) built the Velasca Tower in the center of Milan. The skyscraper takes its name from the square below it named after the Spanish governor Juan Fernàndez de Velasco and has become an unmistakable piece of the city’s skyline, not only because it is over 106 meters high, but also because of its peculiar mushroom shape. This recalls the local medieval tradition of building fortresses with narrower lower parts and wider upper parts supported by strong beams. Because of its appearance, the Milanese affectionately call it “the skyscraper with curly brackets”.

But if the brutalist buildings were initially seen as a metaphor for social unease, today they are dusting off their appeal to their favor from increasing mass consensus. The most famous images are depopulated on social media and the #sosbrutalism campaign has been launched, aiming at safeguarding buildings that are undervalued or at risk of demolition. The Velasca Tower in Milan is #1 on Instagram as the most mentioned brutalist building in the world, with 22,270 mentions. We discovered this with Musement, an online platform specializing in searching and booking of tours and attractions all over the world. They drew up a ranking of the most photographed builldings and then posted iconic buildings of the béton brut movement. The “tower with suspenders” looks down on the brutalist architecture cousins in other cities. Defined by some as one of the ugliest buildings in the city, in 2011 the Velasca Tower was given historic landmark status ... and today takes its revenge.