The Big Brutal Quiz

The Big Brutal Quiz

After an overwhelming success in New York this October, the Independent School for the City invited filmmaker and architect Jord den Hollander to bring The Big Brutal Quiz back to Rotterdam.

Admired and reviled in equal measure — yet now once again widely appreciated — brutalist architecture has cast a longer and heavier shadow across film history than any other style. For more than sixty years, its raw concrete forms, monumental weight, and uncompromising geometry have provided the perfect backdrop for science fiction and dystopian worlds.

During this interactive trivia night devoted to film and architecture, Jord den Hollander guided the audience on a brutally funny, highly entertaining, and enlightening journey through the highlights of film and brutalist architecture from the 1960s to today — celebrating these monumental creations in concrete.

This unique quiz challenged architects, designers, and film lovers to match iconic buildings with more than twenty on-screen appearances — and vice versa. It was a true test of knowledge for both architecture enthusiasts and cinephiles alike!

About Jord den Hollander
Jord den Hollander is an architect, curator, and filmmaker, who has made documentaries about art and architecture, has written and directed an internationally acclaimed television series for children about art and science and was one of the founders of the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, the world’s biggest architecture film festival, which he co-founded in 2002. In addition, he has designed a unique oeuvre that includes an architecture center for children in Almere, a mobile kid’s library, a floating hotel and a tensegrity bicycle bridge.

A Lighthearted Look at Dystopian Cinema

Review of the New York edition for world-architects.com by John Hill | 22. October 2025

A standout of the recent Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF) held in New York City was a first-of-its-kind trivia night that dove into the dramatic intersection between brutalism and film. World-Architects partook in the fun event hosted by architect and filmmaker Jord den Hollander.... read more