In my story, there was a island called Ormland (about the size of Britain). They had a “working partnership” of sorts with dragons, and were fairly isolationist (think Imperial Japan). Their architecture was Brutalist, with lots of pools. The northern part is a desert, and the southern part was more fertile. Ormland has large ports, and Himalayan-scale mountains. It reached Civil War era tech (ironclads), but they never invented gunpowder. Is this reasonable, and is there anything I should know about Civil War era tech? They were a representative republic.
This question doesn't have to do with reasonability, especially as regards schools of design and architecture, but more a question about what leads to the Brutalist style in your story. I'm a huge fan of this school of design, maligned as it often is, and its relationship to the modernist movement in the real world starts in Uppsala, Sweden and explodes from there, becoming popular among young British architects, and utterly central to the vision of a newly burgeoning South America that was hellbent on eschewing the ornate trappings (both literal and ideological) of the Old World and its decadent class systems in favor of a look and feel that spoke to and evoked the sentiment of egalitarianism. That's the question I offer. In terms of worldbuilding and grounding your story in its own history, how do we get to Brutalism? Does the inclusion of dragons in society create a route? Is it simply the wide open spaces and floating architecture that evokes a sense that these structures where intended for beings much greater than ourselves? South American Brutalism is distinct from its European version in that the vast open tracts of land in South America were a significant part of how the design school deployed there rather than in the tight confines of European cities. The way the city of Brasília was designed could certainly lead alien visitors to think this was made for beings rather unlike our true selves. The city also serves as a stark reminder that sometimes human logic and human behavior are deeply mismatched. Brasília sounds as logical as Esperanto when you see it and hear it explained. But it doesn't work very well in actual practice. It's a city built for an eusocial animal, and we are pack animals, not eusocial. The suburbs of the city, not bound by the lofty goals of the original complex, are as organic and natural as any human city. But if there were dragons of a respectable dragonish size, I could see how the vast lawns and pools of Brasília would suddenly feel quite purposeful and practical rather than enigmatically void.
The society was the last remnant of a far larger civilization, a very expansionist one. They grew extremely decadent, and eventually just collapsed through its own weight. To escape that the survivors tried to create a utilitarian society, a isolationist haven. They succeeded. As for the buildings, they’re based on the Soviet style.
The bit that's giving me most pause is the geography. Mountains the size of the Himalayas happen along fault lines and so lead to ranges thousands of miles long. That, plus a desert, plus enough fertile land to support your people all on an island the size of Britain sounds like a very tight squeeze. That said, I don't know that I'd even notice if the setting was just shown as background during your story, rather than laid out like you've done in the first post. Also not sure why they'd have ironclads if they don't have gunpowder, since I thought ironclads were a direct response to cannon, but I guess if they were looking for a dragon-proof boat you could get there.
Mmm.... I don't mean to be a contrarian, but that's actually the Geisel Library in San Diego, CA. Regardless, I think I know the feel you're getting at. The South American school of Brutalism retained more features of the rest of the modernist movement and tended to a slightly more artistic deployment with a somewhat softer feel all around. It's informed by the Usonian school and what we came to think of as mid century modern homes in the U.S. I lived in such a home in Melbourne Beach, FL. Not a ranch, but a genuine mid century. Sprawling, low, no windows facing the street, but huge floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows in the back toward a partial courtyard. Those windows are forever etched in my memory because if mom had to clean your handprints from those windows, you were going to hear about it.
Dragons were the main weapon of war, and the ironclads were to protect shipping from the various sea beasties. It’s more of a background piece, and probably won’t even be visited. It’s not a nice place to live. The desert is fairly small and out-of-the way. Maybe the mountains aren’t Himalayan, but they are large. Yeah, lots of concrete and glass.
