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The age of average

alexmurrell.co.uk

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Re: The age of average

#11

Post by davemp »

This seems somewhat cherry picked, and lacking real insight.

Sure we can agree on the obvious conclusions that mass production is going to try for mass appeal and thus “saminess”.

But my house certainly isn’t white with wood tones. That’s because I’ve been putting in the work to select and restore beautiful furniture from decades past and gradually building towards a more unique aesthetic.

Let me tell you it is expensive in both time and money.

- Just selecting a non-neutral wall color is very difficult and pretty much locks you into certain furniture.

- If you want to commission the perfect dining room table it will cost you $5-20k easily depending on your tastes. Or it will cost weeks of labor to DIY (assuming you’ve already devolved the prereq skills). Mass produced pieces will be your only option.

- For architecture, you don’t really get a choice. Custom building a home is hugely expensive and you’ll need a huge amount of skill/stress capacity to GC it yourself or pay $$$ for someone with a reputation.

I guess I don’t get the point of articles like this. I don’t think they’re entirely wrong, but I’m also pretty sure it’s always been like this. You don’t just get beautiful and unique things for free. It’s just when we look back on history we’re usually blinded by survivorship bias of the beauty that has stood the test of time.

Look up some of Brent Hull’s content about historical architecture. You’ll see that even though he rags on modern buildings, he’ll describe how the different architectural forms were massively influenced by the industrial capabilities of the time.

Re: The age of average

#12

Post by denton-scratch »

> We like to think that we are individuals, but we are much more alike that we wish to admit.

Unusual, eccentric or otherwise interesting opinions aren't going to show up in a market researcher's poll. What were they expecting?

Re: The age of average

#13

Post by Ekaros »

sparsely wrote: post #10
helloplanets wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. This article is a good example of how to not do science. Not a single counterexample is provided from another decade. Not to even talk about actually trying to prove the same point for the 50's etc, with pictures. > Before long, the designer had stumbled on the perfect research tool: AirBnB. From the comfort of her home the app gave her a window into thousands of others. She could travel the world, and view hund…

It's indeed unsurprising that if you look at the designs produced to match a specific context (AirBnB) you'll get a good amount of uniformity, as sellers converge on efficient solutions. If you looked in other contexts (high end apartments for sale in major city, cheap new builds in small towns, mass produced single family homes in another country) you might end up finding more differences.

I would probably look at listings of new apartments in various parts of the world to get picture what is common and what is not. And this should be matched to similar segments(low, mid and high income) in each location.

Re: The age of average

#14

Post by KaiserPro »

Congratulations, you've found fashion.

The reason why things were more varied in previous generations is the speed of communications. it took much longer for fashions to permeate through society, this mean that more local variations happened.

Now, fashions are almost always global, but they still change at the same rate. The difference being is that they change much more in unison across the globe.

Re: The age of average

#16

Post by mrwnmonm »

I came across an article a year ago, but I can't find it now. It shows the difference between ancient archtictures and modern ones. Like churches, masjids, temples, and houses. Then shows how modern buildings looks like a lego in the middle of nature. Does this description reminds anyone here with a similar article?

Re: The age of average

#19

Post by iakov »

KaiserPro wrote: post #14

Congratulations, you've found fashion. The reason why things were more varied in previous generations is the speed of communications. it took much longer for fashions to permeate through society, this mean that more local variations happened. Now, fashions are almost always global, but they still change at the same rate. The difference being is that they change much more in unison across the globe.

Do they really change though? The car example from the article feels stale, yet every single new car looks exactly like the cars on the picture. The stupid instagram face has been a thing since before covid. The movie posters go back to 2001, and I've seen a fair share of bleeding, crying, creepy eyes on the horror movie posters since then.

It feel like we're stuck in a global, homogenized, test-group-approved fashion loop.

Re: The age of average

#20

Post by sparsely »

Ekaros wrote: post #13
sparsely wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's indeed unsurprising that if you look at the designs produced to match a specific context (AirBnB) you'll get a good amount of uniformity, as sellers converge on efficient solutions. If you looked in other contexts (high end apartments for sale in major city, cheap new builds in small towns, mass produced single family homes in another country) you might end up finding more differences.

I would probably look at listings of new apartments in various parts of the world to get picture what is common and what is not. And this should be matched to similar segments(low, mid and high income) in each location.

That would definitely be better, although you're still only capturing part of what's available, or at least a biased sample of what's available. Different form factors come onto the market at different rates - some may never be on the market, or not in an easily accessible manner (sold locally, or via word of mouth, or via private auction etc). I think perhaps that's a distinction that the article fails to make, it's easier than ever to access goods and services from all over the world, but that ease also favours mass market products. If you put as much effort into doing whatever you're trying to do as someone would have pre-internet, you probably have access to at least as much variety as they did.
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