Read the following two passages regarding Brutalist architecture.
Passage A
The recent push to preserve Brutalist architecture often conflates historical curiosity with functional necessity. While these imposing concrete structures undeniably reflect a specific postwar utopianism, their rigid adherence to raw materials has frequently resulted in buildings that are actively hostile to their inhabitants. The persistent public distaste for Brutalism is not, as some preservationists claim, a mere failure of aesthetic education; it is a rational response to structures that are notoriously difficult to heat, impossible to remodel, and oppressive to inhabit. When a building no longer serves its community and resists adaptive reuse, nostalgic attachment must yield to practical urban renewal.
Passage B
It has become entirely too fashionable to condemn Brutalist architecture as an assault on the urban landscape. This rush to demolish represents a profound cultural amnesia. Brutalism was born from a fiercely egalitarian ethos, expressing civic transparency and democratic ambition through unapologetic, unadorned concrete. True, these buildings demand engagement rather than offering easy charm, which explains the reflexive public aversion to them. Yet, pandering to this contemporary preference for the polite and the picturesque by destroying these monumental achievements is a catastrophic error. We are erasing a crucial architectural testament to social idealism simply because it challenges our current, more superficial tastes.
Based on the passages, which of the following most accurately describes the difference in the authors' attitudes toward the public's aversion to Brutalist architecture?
- APassage A dismisses the public aversion as stemming from a lack of architectural education, whereas Passage B validates the aversion by acknowledging the buildings' inherently oppressive nature.
- BPassage A expresses unreserved endorsement of the public's campaign to demolish these buildings, whereas Passage B displays outright hostility toward the public for their lack of aesthetic taste.
- Passage A considers the public aversion to be a rational reaction to the buildings' functional failures, while Passage B considers it to be a superficial preference that ignores the buildings' underlying social idealism.Answer
- DBoth authors characterize the public aversion as an unfortunate but correctable misunderstanding of postwar architectural goals.
- EPassage A argues that the public aversion will inevitably result in the demolition of all Brutalist structures, whereas Passage B asserts that this aversion will quickly fade as architectural trends shift.