In short
Writer-director David Siegel reflects on “Brutalism” as both an architectural style and a metaphor for creativity, examining how modernist aspirations can become divisive and class-alienating.
Guest backgrounds
David Siegel is a writer-director who, with filmmaking partner Scott McGee, has made character-driven films since their 1993 noir melodrama Suture.
Key claims
Brutalist architecture’s stark concrete forms and sculptural lines shaped Siegel’s thinking; the style’s “ugliness” reputation at Berkeley contrasts with its perceived beauty and highlights a disconnect between modernism’s goals and real social effects.
Notable examples
Berkeley’s Worcester Hall, named for architecture dean William Worcester, and comparisons to architectural work by Le Coupé-Boussier.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODavid Siegel on Brutalism and Creativity
0:45 to 3:02
Siegel discusses the impact of brutalist architecture on his creativity and filmmaking.
“I was thinking about my friend Brady Corbet, who made the movie The Brutalist, because I studied architecture as an undergrad at Berkeley, and brutalism was something that was really important to me.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00David Siegel:KCRW sponsors include Netflix presenting Rafa. The series goes beyond tennis to explore the life and legacy of 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal through never-before-seen moments. Vogue hails it revelatory. Emmy-eligible, outstanding documentary series. Welcome to The Treat. I'm Elvis Mitchell. Since the 1993 noir melodrama Suture, writer-director David Siegel has worked with his filmmaking partner, Scott McGee, on pieces about characters trying to figure out where they stand. For his treat, Siegel ponders a style of creativity that literally and figuratively makes him examine where he stands.
0:44Okay, this is David Siegel, and this is The Treat.
0:53I was thinking about my friend Brady Corbet, who made the movie The Brutalist, because I studied architecture as an undergrad at Berkeley, and brutalism was something that was really important to me.
1:13I mean, obviously he couldn't make a movie that was actually really, he'd have to actually build something. But he did such an impressive job of constructing what he did. And yeah, the way that that term takes on a whole different meaning in terms of the character interactions.
1:33The architecture school is in a building called Worcester Hall. And it's called Worcester Hall because William Worcester was one of the deans of architecture at Berkeley. And it's a big, hulking, concrete, brutalist building. A building that I think is quite beautiful, but it's notorious on campus as being an ugly building.
1:57There's been so much written about the disconnect between that kind of modernism and what its aspirations were, but actually what it did in terms of its divisiveness, in terms of the way class worked in architecture. I mean, Le Coupé-Boussier's work is, you know, often, well, it came from a place of trying to, you know, build buildings that could accommodate a new time, a new age, but in a way it is alienating, or it's proved to be alienating in all kinds of other ways.
2:35That kind of architecture, the starkness of it, the symmetry of it, or the asymmetry, I should say, the lines, the kind of sculptural beauty, that really made an impression on me when I was a student and has stayed with me, I think, in Scots and My Work.
3:01Writer-director David Siegel on the modernist school of creativity and architecture known as Brutalism The Treat is produced by Rebecca Mooney and mixed by Katie Gilchrist I'm Elvis Mitchell It's The Treat Thank you.
4:16KCRW sponsors include Netflix, presenting Big Mistakes, Emmy Award-winning creator Dan Levy and Taylor Ortega star as two deeply incapable siblings blackmailed into the world of organized crime. The Telegraph gives it five stars and hails it a glorious comedy. For your Emmy Awards consideration.
From the publisher
Writer-director David Siegel has collaborated on films with Scott McGehee for more than three decades. Their most recent feature is 2025’s 'The Friend,' starring Naomi Watts with a very large and well behaved co-star. But for The Treat, Siegel goes solo. He celebrates a polarizing style of architecture recently featured in an epic film directed by a friend.