Post-War Utilitarian Aesthetics

What many architects, engineers, and city-planners alike would come to know as the ‘Post-War Utilitarian’ aesthetic, serves as a reminder to the ever increasing need for the human psyche to address issues far beyond its control and capability. This phenomenon that continues to this very day encompasses designs from the smallest of purpose-built private civilian shelters, to entire planned-cities designed to resist an enemy occupation - the Post-War Utilitarian aesthetic remains a hallmark of human architecture, and will perhaps remain relevant for the foreseeable future.  Overview  The development of a distinct, practical and utilitarian aesthetic that became part of a growing movement within human worlds was not entirely unexpected following the human-covenant war. With tensions having permeated through all aspects of human society, the images of war broadcasted home giving those untouched by it a very real sense of pressing danger - the need for a means of coping (as superficial and often paradoxically, impractical as it might be), spurred on the development of this so called phenomenon. With many designs born from engineers brought on from the UNSC engineering corps, many of these structures bear a striking resemblance to the typical design doctrines utilized within human military compounds. In fact, many a planned-city designed post-war maintained a quasi-state of appropriate design aesthetics that would fit in right at home with the sprawling compounds of proper military installations. Roadways and boulevards designed to aid in the defensive militia’s tactical capabilities, layouts that favored defensive movements, and underground passageways built in a style not too dissimilar to the insurgents of the insurrectionist period… the post-war paranoia bled in and never truly did dissipate. Whilst many critics often cite these design choices as either impractical or woefully incapable of resisting covenant incursions (the glassing of a city capable of rendering all of these preparations entirely null and void), the fact remains that the design choices serve more as a means of assuaging the citizenry’s anxieties and paranoia, at the very least quelling panic within the civilian masses.