When is the revolution in architecture coming? • Hacker News Board

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#131

Post by galfarragem » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

d--b wrote: post #80

colechristensen wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screw the ornamental stuff, when do we start getting different large-scale patterns in spaces to live and work? Long dark hallways filled with apartments where nobody knows each other or has any occasion to interact. Secluded offices vs. anxiety inducing planes of "open" disasters. Apartments designed to be a shrine to a television and a small bedroom with light only suitable for cave dwellers. The shape of spaces is…

Sure, that too. Architects don't give a shit about interior spaces. They have interns do the plans. What they are lauded for is the exterior, the big hall and the sky terrace. To be fair the working space is being experimented upon. The open spaces are fairly new, and there are plenty of workplaces also where people don't have attributed desks, they just walk around the building and sit wherever they want. Whether an…

> Architects don't give a shit about interior spaces. They have interns do the plans.

As a rule of thumb, main architects are just sellers. They sell projects to clients and authorities - only. Most senior architects are project managers, they don't plan anymore, at most they give some ideas and impose limitations. The rest, including "interns", do the bulk of the project, interiors or facades.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#132

Post by nynx » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

I find the ones the author hates quite beautiful actually. They could use a bit more green though.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#133

Post by batushka3 » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

ollifi wrote: post #117

I find it amazing that most commenters find nothing good in contemporary architecture but at the same time seem to believe that if only somebody did the right thing things would be better. I think it is pretty obvious that there are hard constraints at play here. If it would be possible to do different kind of new buildings, somebody in the world surely would be doing them. It’s really hard to find anyone who doesn’t…

Well actualy it is. In my own wery oldtown, there is a piece of palace remaining next to parking lot. All the submitions were nothing of rebuild, although plenty of historical data. Only glass, concrete and boxy shapes. Something is broken with architects in general.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#134

Post by hairofadog » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

LostInTheWoods wrote: post #130

> WAS THE CONSTRUCTION WORKER AT THE BOTTOM ASKED IF HE LIKED THE BUILDING? IF NOT, WHY NOT? SURELY HIS INPUT SHOULD HAVE MATTERED. A construction worker is strictly implementation. Soliciting design input that isn't relevant to implementation is a recipe for chaos.

I think about the guy in the manhole in Die Hard's "cut the power" scene all the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMKQVPV1pf0

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#135

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

cmarschner wrote: post #79

Oh yeah I can totally relate. If you want to dive deeper, follow Twitter accounts like @wrathofgnon or @createstreets. Just be prepared to leave the cozy liberal bubble of software… the scene is… more diverse. There seems to be a correlation between modernist architecture and liberalism, and vice versa, which to me is so baffling since it is the same people who advocate for modernist buildings who then enjoy their va…

It's worth reading the counterpoint - about reactionary "back to the past" architecture in the UK.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/05/the-royal-dystopia-of...

I went to visit Poundbury a few years ago and my reaction was "Seriously?!" It's just as ugly and soulless as the output of the concrete box school. Even the name shows a hilarious absence of self-awareness.

The fact that these supposed extremes somehow manage to meet is an interesting clue to what is really going on.\

Edit: to add, another clue is the bizarre absence of gardens and independent greenery. There are some micro-lawns but most of the land is given over to roads or buildings. There is very little integration with nature.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#136

Post by Gatsky » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

Grakel wrote: post #2

This misses a big point: highly skilled craftsmanship will never again be affordable on an architectural scale. So we'll have it again when it can all be done by machine. It costs human lives to build a Notre Dame, both in deaths and in total lifespan output, and as for Sagrada Familia it's still not complete. We now value human life and labor too much to be able to afford it. I personally can't wait to have detailed…

I just want to say that Sagrada Familia, incomplete as it is, is a work of astounding and incomprehensible genius and I am forever grateful that I was able to see it with my own eyes.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#137

Post by galfarragem » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

batushka3 wrote: post #133

ollifi wrote: post #117

I find it amazing that most commenters find nothing good in contemporary architecture but at the same time seem to believe that if only somebody did the right thing things would be better. I think it is pretty obvious that there are hard constraints at play here. If it would be possible to do different kind of new buildings, somebody in the world surely would be doing them. It’s really hard to find anyone who doesn’t…

Well actualy it is. In my own wery oldtown, there is a piece of palace remaining next to parking lot. All the submitions were nothing of rebuild, although plenty of historical data. Only glass, concrete and boxy shapes. Something is broken with architects in general.

It's complex.

Imagine you inherit a COBOL codebase, would you expand it further or would you try to add a functional microservice in the language of the day?

Ok, you can say: the codebase is not COBOL, is C and is beautifully done. However all architects studied Art History and Aesthetics, so, at least, they have a more informed opinion on what defines a good codebase than a layman. Probably we could give them the benefit of the doubt.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#138

Post by coldtea » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

ollifi wrote: post #117

I find it amazing that most commenters find nothing good in contemporary architecture but at the same time seem to believe that if only somebody did the right thing things would be better. I think it is pretty obvious that there are hard constraints at play here. If it would be possible to do different kind of new buildings, somebody in the world surely would be doing them. It’s really hard to find anyone who doesn’t…

>It’s really hard to find anyone who doesn’t love great historical buildings

Good luck getting the average modern architect to even consider to design anything like that...

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#139

Post by agent327 » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

ollifi wrote: post #117

I find it amazing that most commenters find nothing good in contemporary architecture but at the same time seem to believe that if only somebody did the right thing things would be better. I think it is pretty obvious that there are hard constraints at play here. If it would be possible to do different kind of new buildings, somebody in the world surely would be doing them. It’s really hard to find anyone who doesn’t…

I believe that at least part of the problem is that buildings aren't built to last, they are built to be torn down in a few decades - so the people building them have no sense of making something lasting, or pride in making something beautiful. Instead they just want the cheapest space they can get, resulting in using the cheapest materials and maximizing internal space - meaning the outside will almost certainly be some kind of cube. So it's a question of both cost and attitude.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#140

Post by wffurr » Tue, Nov 09, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

dusted wrote: post #118

sethammons wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took the question to be seeking if you have been influenced by the industry / culture that is being criticized, and not gatekeeping.

My apologies, I shouldn't set out so defensively. It's just the form of question that I have happened upon many times when discussing architecture with architects, or art with artists, and there it's definitely an attempt at gatekeeping :)

Well, the article did also mention leftists favoring Brutalist architecture, and not just architecture award panels. So I suppose you could be a leftist too.