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Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

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Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#51

Post by seibelj »

cgh wrote: post #46
seibelj wrote: post #10

Boston City Hall routinely ranks as one of the ugliest buildings on earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_City_Hall Brutalist concrete building straight out of 1984. Really gets you mentally prepared for the labyrinth, dispassionate and uncaring bureaucracy that awaits you inside. > The building has been subject to nearly universal public condemnation, and is often called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Ca…

From the Wikipedia article you linked: “Architects and critics considered it to be excellent work, with one poll finding that professional architects describe Boston City Hall as one of the ten proudest achievements of American architecture.”

This is the problem. Ivory tower architecture academics get ahold of taxpayer money and build something the vast majority of the population, who is forced to live with it everyday, despises. Mayor for Life Menino planned on demolishing it, but the financial crisis happened and then he died before getting the chance.

A horrible blunder which shows the limits of giving a tiny elite control of the process. When it’s gone no one will shed a tear except a few professors. In the modern era everything is debated on the internet, and this disaster would have been shouted down before ever happening.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#52

Post by gherkinnn »

hcrisp wrote: post #3

Nothing in the article explains why it is Kafkaesque.

Some brutalist buildings do instil the same sense of cold, surreal, and inhuman qualities Kafka does with his writing. Insurmountable oppression.

Also, Kafkas protagonists are often stripped of any sense of intimacy. Laid bare, much like the naked concrete and straight lines seen in brutalist architecture.

So I do see where OP could be coming from. Then again, LA is not able to drown me in dread the same way a dreary Soviet administration building does.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#53

Post by Animats »

It's just functional. It has a job to do, moving water, and it does it.

When the Panama Canal locks were nearing completion, some artists were sent down to Panama to advise on decoration. There was talk of building stone lions at the locks. The artists came back and reported that the works had been carried out with no regard for decoration, and the best thing to do would be to keep them that way, purely functional. That was done, and the locks, impressive but plain-looking, are still that way.

River control for intermittent floods through populated areas has produced some good solutions. The Guadalupe River goes through San Jose, and floods every few years. The river now runs through a narrow channel deep in a big, wide channel. The big wide channel has walkways and bike paths, which will be underwater during a flood. And now, multiple homeless encampments.

Tapei has a similar setup on a much larger scale.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_River_(California)

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#55

Post by rayiner »

concretion wrote: post #31
seibelj wrote: post #10

Boston City Hall routinely ranks as one of the ugliest buildings on earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_City_Hall Brutalist concrete building straight out of 1984. Really gets you mentally prepared for the labyrinth, dispassionate and uncaring bureaucracy that awaits you inside. > The building has been subject to nearly universal public condemnation, and is often called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Ca…

If you have to experience it every day, and you don't have any choice in the matter, it's in your interest to put some effort into appreciating it as architecture. Lots of people do think that it's a great work of architecture. Not every experience of art, music, etc. is going to appeal to you at the start. Some things are worth learning about. It's worth cultivating a real sensitivity to brutalism among many other t…

> Not every experience of art, music, etc. is going to appeal to you at the start. Some things are worth learning about. It's worth cultivating a real sensitivity to brutalism among many other things.

> I know this sounds sanctimonious. OTOH rejecting a controversial piece of creative work in a shrill and clichéd way sounds ignorant and arrogant

The ordinary people of Boston shouldn’t have to “cultivate a sensitivity” to something sitting on their public land, built for their use paid for with their tax dollars. Public architecture should cater to the tastes of the masses—that is the sole legitimate criterion for judging public art and architecture—not the egos and fantasies of the architectural elite.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#56

Post by projektfu »

hcrisp wrote: post #3

Nothing in the article explains why it is Kafkaesque.

True, Kafkaesque would imply something like you get on the elevator to floor 5 and the 5th floor is labeled 6. You take the stairs down two flights to floor 5, skipping floor R. You go to the door labeled for the office you want and they tell you the office you seek is actually in a different building, which they do not know the address to, and you must now wait for the elevator which has stopped running until an hour from now because reasons and the stairs do not let you back to ground level.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#57

Post by growlist »

xenocyon wrote: post #35
seibelj wrote: post #10

Boston City Hall routinely ranks as one of the ugliest buildings on earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_City_Hall Brutalist concrete building straight out of 1984. Really gets you mentally prepared for the labyrinth, dispassionate and uncaring bureaucracy that awaits you inside. > The building has been subject to nearly universal public condemnation, and is often called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Ca…

You're conflating brutalism and soulless/inhuman/ugly concrete-heavy design; this is a common misunderstanding. Brutalism when done thoughtfully and well is beautiful, uplifting, and provides a sense of calm and space. The Simon Fraser U campus is a good example: https://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-brutali...

> Brutalism when done thoughtfully and well is beautiful, uplifting, and provides a sense of calm and space

And yet common folk - unfairly deprived of an education in hifalutin architecture-speak - still seem to consider brutalism to be as ugly as sin.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#58

Post by remarkEon »

xenocyon wrote: post #35
seibelj wrote: post #10

Boston City Hall routinely ranks as one of the ugliest buildings on earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_City_Hall Brutalist concrete building straight out of 1984. Really gets you mentally prepared for the labyrinth, dispassionate and uncaring bureaucracy that awaits you inside. > The building has been subject to nearly universal public condemnation, and is often called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Ca…

You're conflating brutalism and soulless/inhuman/ugly concrete-heavy design; this is a common misunderstanding. Brutalism when done thoughtfully and well is beautiful, uplifting, and provides a sense of calm and space. The Simon Fraser U campus is a good example: https://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-brutali...

Concrete buildings like this, even when thoughtfully designed, end up looking decrepit and decayed after just a couple of years as the concrete ages and discolours. I see nothing “uplifting” about that building.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#59

Post by Gibbon1 »

seibelj wrote: post #51
cgh wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the Wikipedia article you linked: “Architects and critics considered it to be excellent work, with one poll finding that professional architects describe Boston City Hall as one of the ten proudest achievements of American architecture.”

This is the problem. Ivory tower architecture academics get ahold of taxpayer money and build something the vast majority of the population, who is forced to live with it everyday, despises. Mayor for Life Menino planned on demolishing it, but the financial crisis happened and then he died before getting the chance. A horrible blunder which shows the limits of giving a tiny elite control of the process. When it’s gon…

One of my theories is after WWII a lot of fields of study, like psychology, anthropology, literature, sociology, economics, architecture, etc, went completely sideways into loony coo-coo land. The result were nihilistic/ideological trashfires.

Most of them have recovered like psychology, anthropology, literature, sociology. Economics and architecture really haven't.

Re: Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures

#60

Post by kerakaali »

harimau777 wrote: post #28
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you glad some are? Signed, A Brutalist Hater

Less poetically, I like the fact that there are different types of architecture which communicate different messages.

Right? It's architectural prosody and super interesting to see how design can effect the very mood of the environment. I love cyberpunk and find brutalist architecture to be one of the primary styles in the genre that really helps to build the setting. There's a sense of impressive oppression that emanates from well executed brutalist buildings and sometimes mystery like in the case of 33 Thomas Street [0].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street

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