Looking out on the massive concrete apartment houses of Brutalism. Taken as buildings, as buildings are usually thought of, the preponderance of the critics are right. But this merely tells us about what criticism is intent on doing in the world. The point is that the better way to think about a building, closer to what it is in itself, is a place for all of these people to live. Whatever their station in society, to have libraries of philosophy, enlightenment literature, facsimiles of the ancient texts, and a solid table or two. In this culture, this was the explicit hope. But very few of them live in that manner now, and perhaps, like the people in every other country, very few of them ever did, despite (or perhaps because of) the inexpensive ideological publishing houses, which were seen as a legitimate extension of the state. In the event, the humans didn't wish to live in that manner. It's an odd species. Bit capricious.
Very little discussion, if any, in this part of the world about the hazards of aerated concrete. (Contrast the Roman concrete, still going after two millennia.) Apparently still being widely used. Might be an issue (or worse) in a decade or two. #notexpert