31–40 of 80 posts
I remember seeing commentary like this a few years ago. Looking at this today in the post-generative ML world, I realize that the pictures of these houses look like what such a system would produce as output.
This blog has been around since 2016, so it may well have been the very same commentary. I certainly remember it making the rounds back then.
The envy is palpable.
Except the house has to be net zero or close to it. The nice thing about my house is all the environmental stuff is well-hidden from the street.
Who builds these things and why is BOTH the architecture and workmanship so shoddy? Who opted for this instead of making a well-architected and well built home 2/3rds the size (All you save in fake columns and moldings probably gets you some area back). Where I live, a new home is always built by the first owner. That is, the first owner together with the architect creates the home including every plan, every materia…
Who builds these things and why is BOTH the architecture and workmanship so shoddy? Who opted for this instead of making a well-architected and well built home 2/3rds the size (All you save in fake columns and moldings probably gets you some area back). Where I live, a new home is always built by the first owner. That is, the first owner together with the architect creates the home including every plan, every materia…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the Keynesian beauty contest - if the exterior or the layout conformed to someone's taste or use case the seller will exclude the group with different tastes. So the outcome is a mishmash that appeals badly to everyone. It's no accident that so many supermodels are from Brazil - the nation is a true melting pot of races, it attracted immigrants from everywhere. If you need a clotheshorse you go to rural Rio Gran…
McMansions don’t appeal badly to everyone: millions of Americans happily live in them. The more accurate observation isn’t that they’re the product of a Keynesian contest, but they’re the product of distorted real estate and home ownership incentives: homeowners conflate size and apparent luxury with investment safety, and our housing and development policies encourage that conflation.
With a more individualized layout a good chunk would live happier - the standard examples are the dramatic rooflines that just encourage leaks at the edges and the two-story foyer that wastes so much space. But as you say, it's not about comfort or practicality, it's about resale value.
Who builds these things and why is BOTH the architecture and workmanship so shoddy? Who opted for this instead of making a well-architected and well built home 2/3rds the size (All you save in fake columns and moldings probably gets you some area back). Where I live, a new home is always built by the first owner. That is, the first owner together with the architect creates the home including every plan, every materia…
I’m not sure there is anything objectively bad about these designs. Does it affect the utility of the house? Or is there some inherent ugliness that comes with affordable and popular things?
I would question both of these adjectives, where I live, "affordable" is sub-400'000 USD and "popular" is a 3-bedroom terraced house. I would use expensive and extravagant instead.
Who builds these things and why is BOTH the architecture and workmanship so shoddy? Who opted for this instead of making a well-architected and well built home 2/3rds the size (All you save in fake columns and moldings probably gets you some area back). Where I live, a new home is always built by the first owner. That is, the first owner together with the architect creates the home including every plan, every materia…
Who builds these things and why is BOTH the architecture and workmanship so shoddy? Who opted for this instead of making a well-architected and well built home 2/3rds the size (All you save in fake columns and moldings probably gets you some area back). Where I live, a new home is always built by the first owner. That is, the first owner together with the architect creates the home including every plan, every materia…
In the US, new single-family homes are typically built by a real estate developer according to a common design. The first buyers are usually allowed some limited input on the design (choice of colors and decorative materials, size of garage, perhaps an optional additional bedroom or bathroom) but the core architectural design is chosen by the developer and cannot be changed.