My intent was not to be arrogant. These discussions never get PAST the issue of taste. People with a distaste for modern architecture do not seem to want to understand the historical motivation. Architects (for the most part) do not foist their strange proclivities on an unsuspecting society. Strange to say, there was a genuine enthusiasm for “Fort Book” at one time and it is a sincere reflection of a certain set of values. Nobody here wants to have that discussion.
I could start a thread every few months about my distaste for Victorian architecture. But I don’t. Instead I try to understand why the Victorians did what they did.
Try Geisel Library at UCSan Diego for the “opposte of concrete, but just as repulsive” look. The place always has me looking for more Space Invaders. But it is nice and airy inside, with a gorgeous view. Just what you need when you’re trying to focus on classwork. :smack:
Better than what, a sod hut? Actually, let me take that back. Sod huts solved the problem of lack of timber for plains settlers. Those buildings are answers to a question that nobody asked.
The fact that one of those buildings actually won some kind of award is simply mind boggling.
If you can provide some evidence to show that anyone beyond architecture professors, their trainees, and architectural critics, advocated for these styles, I would love to hear it.
Look at the overwhelming response of this thread. Modern architecture and its current progeny continues to be foisted on the public, while we are condescendingly told that “We just don’t get it.”
I meant to respond to this as well. I perfectly well understand the motivations of Le Corbusier and the like. I also understand the motivation of many thieves and murders. Understanding a person’s motivation doesn’t equal a need to like or approve of what they did (or made).
Yeah. It’s the “I dare say” link that Captain Lance Murdoch posted above. A design so degenerate that the only rational response is to put the architect to death.
Well, from the outside I grant you that; but it was absolute hell on the inside - like being buried underground. The way the place was designed, there was literally no natural light except in tiny corner niches.
Simple – some Catalan wanted to stick it to the Scots so that they would not get independence first, and some fellow who escaped from Prague wanted revenge fo the Soviet period he suffered through as a child.
I don’t know, but I’d start by trying to read about the intentions of the clients. Follow the money. People don’t usually commission multi-million dollar buildings without knowing what they’re going to get, and approving.
That one actually looks kind of cool, at least from a distance, in a quasi-fascistic, Bond villian-ish, Atlas Shrugged sort of way. Like the writings of Ayn Rand, though, I suspect it becomes tiresome up close and at length. I certainly wouldn’t want to work in it any more than I’d want to work in the giant dildo Swiss Re Tower in London.
There’s nothing new about that. Ever heard of Romanesque? Gothic Revival? Give me any architectural style throughout history, and I’ll show you elements stolen from earlier eras. Architecture has always been about looking backward as much as forward… until 1950 or so, when some academic cretins decided that originality was not only a virtue, but the ONLY virtue.
That’s what people hate about modern architecture: it has no sense of history. It’s so intent on *revolution * that it forgets that most good things come from evolution.
When referring to the blob that will become the Chez National Library, it was hasty of me to say “Might want to take an aspirin before viewing.” I apologize for the hasty quip.
I should have said “For the love of all that’s good and right, take some antibiotics and get your shots.”
Seriously, that place looks like a disease. If it was on my bathroom floor, I would take a sample to the hospital’s lab, and bleach the hell out of the floor.
Dear God, that’s even worse. The worst part is the context that “the blob” is in. Look at the other buildings, then look at that piece of shit. Holy Christ, how could anyone think that building that is a good idea?
