Why is everything so ugly? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#51

Post by karaterobot » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 3:49 PM UTC

Another article on the same topic, is "Why You Hate Contemporary Architecture" by Adrian Rennix and Nathan J. Robinson.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/10/why-you-hate-contempo...

The two don't necessarily disagree, but I think the one I linked is better written. Plus, something about having all the block quotes be from tweets always makes me feel like the author isn't doing enough research or reading widely enough to be authoritative.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#52

Post by 65 » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 3:50 PM UTC

apantel wrote: post #40

A whole article about ugly things with no pictures of them?

I don't trust the author if he's not giving any visual examples. Why should I trust his opinion?

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#53

Post by account-5 » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 3:51 PM UTC

jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

Nothing wrong with vinyl, you can get some real good quality vinyl flooring.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#54

Post by petepete » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 3:52 PM UTC

jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

I thought this grey decor trend was a British phenomenon - glad it's not just us!

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#55

Post by yostrovs » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 3:57 PM UTC

jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

When selling our previous property, the seller agent recommended we paint it in "agreeable gray," supposedly the current color that is neutral and will not affect anyone negatively.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#56

Post by jrockway » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 3:59 PM UTC

skywhopper wrote: post #8

Can’t bring myself to read a screed like this. Every few years there’s been an article making exactly this complaint for hundreds of years. Most things are ugly and/or trash. Always has been, always will be. And the current fashion will eventually change, it always does.

Yeah I kind of jumped around to figure out what the meat of the argument is. I didn't figure it out, but I do feel bad for the authors. If everything around you is consistently terrible and every waking moment is agony... it might not be the world that's the problem. That might come from inside. Maybe talk to someone about how you feel.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#57

Post by FerretFred » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 4:02 PM UTC

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #48

jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

I blame house flippers honestly. They buy up houses that are in rough shape on the cheap, then renovate strictly to sell, not for personal taste. The incentives at play are to shoot for a very dull, milquetoast instagram-ish aesthetic that anyone can sort of get along with, so you won't lose people for not liking whatever hardwood or paint colors you picked.

Yeah! Watching any episode of (UK) daytime-TV's "Homes Under the Hammer" will reveal any number of properties - some with real character - refurbished with every shade of grey you can imagine. It looks awful to be honest and really, what kind of philistine paints over real wood anyway? What really bugs me is the way the estate agents visit afterwards and say "how tastefully it's been renovated".

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#58

Post by juggertao » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 4:03 PM UTC

jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

The current advice is when you buy something to already think about the resale value of the item.

So this excludes all colors for everything. Black, white, gray everything.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#59

Post by Jeema101 » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 4:03 PM UTC

Oh man. There is this building in the city where I live. It's SO uncompromisngly gray and ugly that sometimes I think maybe it's actually a parody of this particular style. It kind of looks like a prison from the outside too... but it's actually condos! I hate it so much that I love it. :)

Anyway here's a great photo of it I found on Google:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMKvYH4OHFU5o4gZlSZ...

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#60

Post by juggertao » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 4:08 PM UTC

Avicebron wrote: post #2

As much as I claim to like brutalitism as a design philosophy, I do think we could bring back some things like classic marble architecture. Maybe some new fountains

Classic marble architecture is considered racist and white supremacy adjacent these days.

https://intersectionist.medium.com/american-power-structures...

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/11/how-classical-...