BRUTALISM — the Story of the Form

By Dmitry Strugovshchikov, founder of STRUGA

Updated August 30, 2026

The fourth form of the brand. BRUTALISM — architecture in silver.

It is an exploration of Soviet brutalist aesthetics: its forms, its lines, its visual composition. The family develops under the influence of Suprematism — Suprematist motifs are present in it.

The BRUTALISM rings — Brutalism V.1 Ring and Brutalism V.3 Ring — are the heaviest and most massive in the brand. Today the family is rings and ear cuffs; it is young, and the range will grow.

Architecture as the Starting Point

Where the fourth form begins

BRUTALISM begins with the language of architecture itself. Its reference is Soviet brutalism: forms, lines and visual composition translated into silver, with Suprematist motifs guiding the family as it develops. That starting point distinguishes it from THORN, whose chronology began with a chain link and then moved through other objects. Here the first idea is already architectural: plane, edge, weight and composition become the form. The family is young, so this is not a closed retrospective but the record of a language that is still being built.

• The sequence is fixed: BRUTALISM is the fourth numbered form in CODEX, following SIGNATURE ASYMMETRIC, BLADE and THORN. The material boundary is fixed too: no stones and no inserts, only uncoated silver whose surface changes through contact with the world.

That boundary makes the chronology readable without turning the architectural reference into an unsupported catalogue of influences.

Its Place Inside CODEX

A family, not a separate brand

CODEX is the STRUGA world in which an authored form moves through different types of objects. CODEX carries that process through a chain link, pendant, carabiner and earring: recognition comes from carrying one formal language across changing functions. BRUTALISM belongs inside that system rather than beside it. It is one numbered family within STRUGA, and its objects remain part of the same CODEX vocabulary. Reading the family this way prevents the architectural reference from being mistaken for a separate label or for decoration applied after an object has been designed.

• The order matters because it supplies context rather than rank: SIGNATURE ASYMMETRIC, BLADE and THORN came before the fourth form. BRUTALISM adds its own starting point while keeping the clear lines, recognisable forms and everyday silver that define CODEX.

The numbered place answers where the family belongs; the architectural language explains how its own objects differ.

The Formal Language in Silver

Lines, planes and recognisable restraint

The CODEX language is modern experimental minimalism: simple lines and forms that stay recognisable. BRUTALISM works within that limit by concentrating attention on the silver object itself. There is no stone or insert to provide a separate centre. The composition has to be carried by the relation between mass, line, plane, edge and recess. That is why the architectural reference is structural rather than illustrative. The object does not need to reproduce a building; the family reads through the same concerns with visual weight and the organisation of solid form.

• Three boundaries keep the reading exact: the material is uncoated silver; the family currently contains rings and ear cuffs; and its Suprematist influence is described as a motif guiding development, not as a claim that every object copies a particular historical work.

Restraint is visible in what remains absent as much as in the planes and edges that remain.

Rings That Hold Visual Weight

Massive describes the role of the object

The BRUTALISM rings are the heaviest and most massive rings in STRUGA. Brutalism V.1 and Brutalism V.3 weigh from 9.6 g at size 15 to 24 g at size 22. The atlas definition explains what that means in use: a massive ring is made to hold visual weight, so it appears larger, more sculptural and more pronounced than an everyday baseline. Mass is therefore not a loose synonym for size; it describes how decisively the ring occupies its place on the hand. The family remains part of CODEX, so this visual weight is carried as an everyday object rather than reserved for a single occasion.

• The atlas places BRUTALISM alongside THORN, FUSED and Triple Drills when it explains massive rings. That grouping is an atlas reading of object type, not a claim that the families share one form. BRUTALISM keeps its own architectural planes, lines and composition.

The definition keeps visual weight connected to the ring itself instead of assigning it to an occasion.

Signet and Massive Ring Are Not Synonyms

Plate and visual weight answer different questions

A signet ring is defined by a flat or slightly domed plate on a band, historically associated with leaving an imprint. A massive ring is defined more broadly by visual weight. Those descriptions can meet in one object, but they are not interchangeable. One term identifies a construction centred on a plate; the other identifies the force with which a ring reads on the body. The distinction helps place BRUTALISM signets accurately: they may be heavy, dark-surfaced and architectural while still being signets because of the plate, not merely because of bulk.

• STRUGA signets live in the BRUTALISM and THORN families and gather in the signet collection. That route expands the object-type context while the BRUTALISM atlas keeps the family context visible across the catalogue.

This prevents plate, mass and family identity from collapsing into one imprecise description of the ring.

The Ear Cuff as a Separate Form

One accent or an asymmetric stack

An ear cuff works differently from a ring because its role is compositional around the ear. The atlas allows two readings: a single accent, or an asymmetric stack made from several piercings, cuffs and forms in dialogue. In both cases the cuff is treated as a form in its own right, not as a reduced ring or a rigid cuff bracelet. This matters in the catalogue language: BLADE, SIGNATURE ASYMMETRIC, BRUTALISM and THORN carry ear cuffs, while the reference to cuffs does not mean bracelet cuffs.

• The broader cuff context also names CARBON, whose cuffs are pure matte carbon rather than silver. BRUTALISM keeps the boundary stated for its own family: rings and ear cuffs in silver, with no stones or inserts, read through architectural form. Among the family’s ear cuffs: Brutalism Ear Cuff V.1 (L), Brutalism Ear Cuff V.2 (L) and Brutalism Ear Cuff V.3 Dark Treatment (M).

The catalogue distinction keeps the object type clear while allowing several families to interpret it differently.

Living Silver and Deliberate Oxidation

Two related surface readings

Living Silver is the STRUGA term for sterling silver without rhodium plating. As it is worn, friction brightens raised edges while recesses darken. On an architectural form, that changing contrast can make the composition easier to read because light gathers on edges and shadow remains in deeper areas. STRUGA separates this continuing change from deliberate oxidation: a living surface and an intentionally darkened surface are related, but they are not the same finish. In this family the deliberate darkening is carried by Brutalism V.3 Ring and Brutalism Ear Cuff V.3 Dark Treatment (M); the other rings and cuffs are Living Silver. That distinction is especially useful when reading rings, signets and cuffs within one family.

• The material fact remains simple: the sterling alloy and its international standard are named in the opening summary. STRUGA does not rhodium-plate this silver, so patina, darkening and small traces of handwork remain visible parts of the object rather than being hidden by a fixed bright coating.

Wear does not erase the architecture; the changing contrast continues to reveal its raised and recessed parts.

How the Form Reads on the Body

Weight, surface and intention

The atlas reads rings by weight, surface and intention rather than by occasion. A BRUTALISM ring holds visual weight on the hand; an ear cuff can place one accent higher on the body or join an asymmetric ear composition. The shared family language is architectural, but each object type gives that language a different physical role. The ring concentrates mass around the finger, while the cuff works with the outline of the ear and with the spacing between other forms.

• CODEX gathers objects for everyday wear as well as night and club life, travel and parties. BRUTALISM is not assigned to only one of those settings. Its emphasis is the object’s readable form: clear lines, uncoated silver and a composition that continues to change with wear.

The change of object type alters placement and scale, but it does not replace the family’s formal language.

A Young Family Still Being Built

Current inventory and the routes around it

Rings and ear cuffs are the current BRUTALISM family. The family is young, and its range will grow — but a form story does not predict an unannounced object. The complete current statement is therefore narrow: architecture in silver now lives here through rings and ear cuffs. The next chapter of the chronology appears when the catalogue itself supplies it.

• The collection shows the active family, the signet route explains one ring construction, and the BRUTALISM atlas follows the form across the catalogue. Together those routes let a reader move from story, to object type, to current objects without turning this form story into an inventory page.

The routes also prevent a young family’s open chronology from being mistaken for missing evidence about its current state.

Continue from the journal to a current STRUGA object: Brutalism V.3 Ring.