Dev Diary - Iconic Brutalism by Cristolisto

Howdy y’all! 

My name is Cristolisto, and I'd like to welcome you to my developer diary, where I'll be sharing insights into the creation of my content creator pack: Iconic Brutalism.

Since November 2015, I've been designing and publishing assets for the Cities: Skylines Steam Workshop, with a primary focus on North American commercial buildings, educational buildings, and public transit vehicles.

I'm a Houston, Texas native inspired by architecture and trains, which I express through my creations.

This content creator pack features a collection of 26 buildings. The pack includes:

• 2 Healthcare buildings

• 2 Police Stations

• 2 Fire Stations

• 1 Crematorium

• 3 Metro Stations

• 3 Plazas

• 1 Elementary School

• 1 High School

• 1 College

• 1 Library

• 5 Unique Buildings

• 1 Oil Power Plant

• 1 Garbage Incinerator

• 1 Water Tower

• 1 Water Treatment Plant

When I suggested this pack, some of my goals were both to design striking architecture and to preserve buildings that had been demolished. For example, the Brutalist Clover Building draws inspiration from the Prentice Women’s Hospital, a famous Chicago brutalist building demolished in 2014. The college asset is based on Farish Hall, which is scheduled for demolition in Houston in 2025. 

My interest in brutalist architecture comes from its bold, raw concrete aesthetic. I chose Brutalism because it stands out and tells a story. Whether you see it as beautiful or intimidating, it makes you feel something.

To gain inspiration for my project, I began by exploring examples of brutalist architecture around Houston so I could experience them firsthand. I went to the Alley Theatre in downtown Houston and Farish Hall at the University of Houston and took some photos that would eventually be used as textures for some of the buildings.

Photos of brutalism I took around Houston.

For this pack, I wanted to focus on service buildings. There’s a brutalist choice for all base game services, plus a few unique buildings. I drew inspiration from well-known brutalist structures, such as Boston City Hall. While creating the assets, I focused on ensuring that each service building's appearance clearly conveyed its purpose, allowing observers to identify their functions at a glance.

My goal was to craft designs that are instantly recognizable while also being visually distinct from one another. Throughout the process, I tried to balance realism with creativity, ensuring that each structure would feel authentic within a city but also spark curiosity and appreciation for this architectural style.

While designing the assets, I intentionally incorporated elements inspired by the cyberpunk aesthetic into some buildings. This choice was made because the genre frequently features brutalist architecture. This fusion of cyberpunk and brutalism allowed me to experiment with lighting, signage, and unconventional building shapes, resulting in structures that feel both futuristic and grounded in reality. 

Small Service buildings being developed in Blender with the intention of fitting nicely in a Cyberpunk environment.

Brutalism is a good style for building public transport places. I made designs for three metro stations that all follow the same design language, so the whole metro system can have matching station buildings. There is an elevated, ground, and underground station to use in this pack.

Ground metro station with platform lights inspired by the Washington Metro.

Green Brutalism played a significant role in shaping the distinctiveness of most of this pack. This architectural approach, also referred to as eco-brutalism, integrates greenery with the characteristic concrete elements of brutalist design. Mixing plants with buildings makes them nicer and more inviting for people to visit or live/work in.

The High School features a green roof terrace designed to provide students with access to outdoor space and fresh air.

Working on the Brutalist High School was an enjoyable project. All the high school buildings I've shared on the Steam Workshop are my original creations, each designed to reflect the era I intended. They're also realistically sized, featuring every room a school typically requires. To illustrate my vision for each high school building, I've included a fictional floor plan that outlines what I had in mind during the development process. The Brutalist High School follows this same approach, combining an original design with a custom floor plan.

Fictional floor plan of the high school.

Testing the different biomes was needed to ensure the assets looked good in each one. The testing showed that brutalism looks great in both hot and cold environments. Using the assets in Snowfall needed extra work to make sure snow would not build up in certain areas. I went back to each building to paint the vertices in Blender. Vertex painting using hex colors #FFFF80 removes snow build-up and #FFFF00 to remove both snow and ice. The results are realistic snow on each building.

Vertex painting in Blender.

The effect of Vertex painting in-game. No snow build-up on walkable areas and no ice on the helipad.

All buildings in a snowfall testing map.

Testing night lighting.

I hope this helps explain how I made this pack. This was a very fun pack to create, and I hope you enjoy adding brutalist architecture to your cities!

Below are some more of my Screenshots showcasing some of the buildings!

Thank y’all for reading,

Cristolisto

Find more of my work:
Paradox Mods: https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/authors/Cristolisto
Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/id/cristolisto/