Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Most people prefer traditional architecture

worksinprogress.news

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 383 posts

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#201

Post by __d »

grebc wrote: post #169
boh wrote: post #61

Modernism is the act of using cheaper resources and more standardized/cheaper methods of production. The aesthetic is more of a side-effect of those limits. Ugliness has become a cultural norm in order to suit the modern economy. It may come as a surprise but it required years of cultural development and education for most people to accept the work of Dieter Rams as some aesthetic pinnacle rather than soulless mass p…

White or grey are grossly over represented in Australia. It’s like people visit the remains of the forum in Rome and picture the colours being as they are today instead of the ridiculously bright/strong colours they would have been when erected/used.

I painted my house blue and orange in protest at the boring colour choices most people make.

No one else on my street has followed my lead though.

I think some of it is because people are obsessed with treating housing as an investment, and so anything outside the norm is a financial risk.

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#202

Post by papa-whisky »

infakelife wrote: post #164

Am I the only one who thinks they use especially weak modernist buildings as references? Maybe the average modernist building really is that bad and the issue is that "traditional" buildings are more forgiving for an average architect.

This point is addressed in the article...

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#203

Post by int_19h »

TFNA wrote: post #104
interiorchurch wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is sort of a just-so story that isn't completely true. Stalin pushed "socialist classicism" [1] as an aesthetic, and it wasn't until his successors took over that modernist architectural ideas imported from the West became a hallmark of actually-existing socialism. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinist_architecture

There was a whole decade of Soviet design before Stalin, which was often radically modernist even by the standards of its day, and that is what the OP was referring to. Stalin was notoriously conservative in his artistic tastes.

Stalin was notoriously conservative in most things. I mean, the guy banned abortions, criminalized homosexuality, and re-instituted paid high school.

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#204

Post by pvab3 »

boh wrote: post #61

Modernism is the act of using cheaper resources and more standardized/cheaper methods of production. The aesthetic is more of a side-effect of those limits. Ugliness has become a cultural norm in order to suit the modern economy. It may come as a surprise but it required years of cultural development and education for most people to accept the work of Dieter Rams as some aesthetic pinnacle rather than soulless mass p…

Not really. That may have been true in the past, but it would be so cheap to CNC carve or extrude or injection-mould some ornamentation. Certain materials have gotten more expensive, but I think most of modernism was driven by materials progress and a boredom with previous trends

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#205

Post by vintagedave »

__d wrote: post #201
grebc wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

White or grey are grossly over represented in Australia. It’s like people visit the remains of the forum in Rome and picture the colours being as they are today instead of the ridiculously bright/strong colours they would have been when erected/used.

I painted my house blue and orange in protest at the boring colour choices most people make. No one else on my street has followed my lead though. I think some of it is because people are obsessed with treating housing as an investment, and so anything outside the norm is a financial risk.

This is the grey car theory of real estate.

It’s easy to sell grey, white, and black cars. So it’s what you buy.

This assumes no purchase is longterm. Which is its own indictment.

I should add: I love that you broke this idea. Can you (safely for the internet) share any photos?

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#206

Post by int_19h »

mmooss wrote: post #112
boh wrote: post #61

Modernism is the act of using cheaper resources and more standardized/cheaper methods of production. The aesthetic is more of a side-effect of those limits. Ugliness has become a cultural norm in order to suit the modern economy. It may come as a surprise but it required years of cultural development and education for most people to accept the work of Dieter Rams as some aesthetic pinnacle rather than soulless mass p…

> Ugliness has become a cultural norm I love modern architecture (and art); I find many older forms to be garish, focused on pointless decoration and on wealth display, rather than on the beauty of function and form. The imagination of [some] modern architecture, starting from those fundamentals, is stunning. You don't like it, which is just as valid, but trying to turn your preference into a universal truth for huma…

There's a converse effect too, though - because conservatives tend to attack modernist and postmodernist art, liberals tend to defend even things that are too ridiculous to be seriously defended.

It's not "fascism" to wince and shrug at the taped banana. It's just common sense. But if you insist that everyone who does so is secretly motivated by some kind of bigotry, you end up pushing them towards the right wingers anyway.

Ugly is in the right of the beholder when it comes to individuals, but societies also have collective preferences.

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#209

Post by matchbok3 »

solid_fuel wrote: post #106
matchbok3 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be making up arguments against some caricature that you have built in your mind in order to satisfy some form of virtue signaling or sanctimonious belief. Whatever it is, it makes no sense and I feel dumber for having read it. Go touch grass, it's healthy. (And get off bluesky)

> You seem to be making up arguments against some caricature that you have built in your mind in order to satisfy some form of virtue signaling or sanctimonious belief. Whatever it is, it makes no sense and I feel dumber for having read it. > Go touch grass, it's healthy. (And get off bluesky) You seem to have been triggered by the OP pointing out that a lot of this traditionalist architecture movement is - yes - rac…

Overcomplicating things and referencing vague connections does not make an argument inherently better. Just longer.

No, it's not racist, no matter how much you try to make it so. It's exhausting and tired and makes people like Trump win. Racism is bad, good looking buildings are ... good.

Absolutely ridiculous, please listen to yourselves and please, please, think long and hard about how median American's would respond to this nonsense. (If you know any)

Re: Most people prefer traditional architecture

#210

Post by janalsncm »

Analemma_ wrote: post #35
perilunar wrote: post #16

There's more to architecture than just the façade, which is what people are rating when they are just looking at photos of the exterior. The interiors, structure, and services, etc. of modern building are often far superior to older ones, and i suspect many 'ordinary' people would agree.

Yes, every time people get grumpy about modern architecture and look over to see if I agree I tell the story about how I used to work at a company in Boston which moved from a beautiful 19th century building to a soulless Modernist steel-and-glass skyscraper. And thank fucking god: the old building was too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, had too little natural light, and was too cramped. The Modernist buil…

That doesn’t explain why the architecture students in the article prefer facades that the general public generally dislike.
Post reply on HN