Ugly and Tasteless
Concrete, modernism and brutalism from around the world, with archive finds and a soft spot for buildings most people call ugly.
What it is
"Ugly and Tasteless" (Eto nekrasivo i bezvkusno) is a Telegram channel about brutalism, modernism and the kind of architecture many people call ugly. It's run by an architect-restorer who also wrote a book about architecture in video game worlds, and who describes herself as a "concrete druid". The format is photos of buildings with captions ranging from a few words to a proper analysis, plus archive finds and new projects. Captions are in Russian, and there are no ads.
Why we picked it
This architecture channel teaches you to look closely at concrete. Here's the interior of Offenbach's town hall from 1969–71, filed under #sexybrutalism. Here's an idyllic old photo of a now-abandoned holiday camp for AvtoVAZ carmakers in Abkhazia: the author couldn't find the architects, a subscriber dug up a 1988 article in the factory union's newspaper, and photos of the same site from five years ago followed.
Contemporary work gets equal space. To welcome autumn, the author started a series of her favourite autumn architecture shoots with Two Gabled Volumes, One Landscape by BRBB Architects, unpacking its composition over several posts. Nearby you'll find a cultural centre in Gisors at dusk, a model of the Sequitur winery, Thailand's Wat Sam Phran dragon temple and its legend, and Belgrade photographer Danko Maksimović's street shots of Paris. There are detours too: paintings, the Moon over Moscow, small architectural details she loves.
Where to start
- The AvtoVAZ holiday camp story — the best example of how the channel works with archives and readers.
- The Two Gabled Volumes, One Landscape series, if you want to learn to read a building's composition.
- #uglymodernism for modernism people love to hate.
- #concrete and #monumentalism for raw concrete and monumental art.
- #лайк for things the author simply likes.
Who it's for
Fans of modernism and brutalism, architects and students, urban photographers and anyone learning to see beauty in concrete. The photos speak for themselves, so even without Russian it's a rewarding brutalist architecture feed to scroll.
Quick answers
What language is it in? Russian, though the photos carry most of the story.
How often does it post? Going by the public preview, several times a week, sometimes as a series in one day.
Do I need Telegram to view it? No. The web preview opens in a browser without an account.
