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When is the revolution in architecture coming?

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Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#11

Post by throwawaysea »

I agree with the sentiment of the article overall but this one sentence felt bizarrely out of place to me:

> Here are a couple of works by the greatest architect who ever lived, Antoni Gaudí

Really? Apart from the Sagrada Familia, the rest of his more famous works just comes off as weirdly whimsical at best, and discordantly unattractive at worst. It’s strange seeing such a definitive opinion given the grandeur of some of the ancient work the author highlights earlier, which seems far beyond Gaudí. Another irony here is that his work falls under the label of “Catalan modernism”, while the author is railing against modernism and its derivative styles.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#13

Post by jahewson »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #8
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…

Stone and wood is carved by machines quite easily. Sears used to churn out homes with loads of detail and mail them out wholesale to middle class folks. Those homes are now worth fortunes. We have terrible architecture for ideological reasons. Flat roofs are not signifincantly cheaper to build than pitched roofs, and far less adept at roofiness, but we got flat roofs from bauhaus philosophy. As with most modern art,…

> we got flat roofs from bauhaus philosophy.

Not really. Frank Lloyd Wright was building with flat roofs a decade before the Bauhaus school even opened. But it was certainly an artistic endeavour and he’s a great example of somebody who had an adversarial relationship with pretty much everybody.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#15

Post by zwkrt »

nradov wrote: post #10
recursivedoubts wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stone and wood is carved by machines quite easily. Sears used to churn out homes with loads of detail and mail them out wholesale to middle class folks. Those homes are now worth fortunes. We have terrible architecture for ideological reasons. Flat roofs are not signifincantly cheaper to build than pitched roofs, and far less adept at roofiness, but we got flat roofs from bauhaus philosophy. As with most modern art,…

Hardly any new houses are built with flat roofs. That trend is mostly dead. Commercial buildings still have flat roofs because they need a place to mount stuff like HVAC and antennas.

I don’t know where you are but in Seattle almost every new house has some sort of boxy flat-roofed design

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#16

Post by foepys »

nradov wrote: post #10
recursivedoubts wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stone and wood is carved by machines quite easily. Sears used to churn out homes with loads of detail and mail them out wholesale to middle class folks. Those homes are now worth fortunes. We have terrible architecture for ideological reasons. Flat roofs are not signifincantly cheaper to build than pitched roofs, and far less adept at roofiness, but we got flat roofs from bauhaus philosophy. As with most modern art,…

Hardly any new houses are built with flat roofs. That trend is mostly dead. Commercial buildings still have flat roofs because they need a place to mount stuff like HVAC and antennas.

Here in Germany next to all new apartment buildings (usually 3-5 stories) have flat roofs.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#17

Post by alephnan »

Society, as an economic participant, has options and alternate goods it can spend its money on.

Historically, maybe there was nothing else more interesting to spend money on, so people allocated their time and energy to these grand architecture. Now the Medicis of the world can spend their wealth on space exploration and memes instead.

Many of these places are also spiritually motivated, and the world is increasingly atheist.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#18

Post by generationP »

throwawaysea wrote: post #11

I agree with the sentiment of the article overall but this one sentence felt bizarrely out of place to me: > Here are a couple of works by the greatest architect who ever lived, Antoni Gaudí Really? Apart from the Sagrada Familia, the rest of his more famous works just comes off as weirdly whimsical at best, and discordantly unattractive at worst. It’s strange seeing such a definitive opinion given the grandeur of so…

> Another irony here is that his work falls under the label of “Catalan modernism”, while the author is railing against modernism and its derivative styles.

Gaudi seems to be one of those great artists who never managed to impart his good ideas on his students. Or maybe it was the wrong era for whimsy and measured extravagance.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#19

Post by ghaff »

nradov wrote: post #10
recursivedoubts wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stone and wood is carved by machines quite easily. Sears used to churn out homes with loads of detail and mail them out wholesale to middle class folks. Those homes are now worth fortunes. We have terrible architecture for ideological reasons. Flat roofs are not signifincantly cheaper to build than pitched roofs, and far less adept at roofiness, but we got flat roofs from bauhaus philosophy. As with most modern art,…

Hardly any new houses are built with flat roofs. That trend is mostly dead. Commercial buildings still have flat roofs because they need a place to mount stuff like HVAC and antennas.

It's partly a climate thing. Flat roofs in areas with snow are begging for all sorts of leaks and general snow load problems. There are probably houses in the Northeast built with flat roofs. They probably also have leak issues. Heck, houses with sloped roofs often have problems at junctions and with ice dams. Commercial properties are, in part of the reasons you cite.

Re: When is the revolution in architecture coming?

#20

Post by chadash »

I agree with the premise of the article but there’s also some survivorship bias at play. We know about (and don’t knock down) the particularly beautiful older buildings. If you go to New York City there’s beautiful stuff from the early 20th century (think Chrysler Building) and plenty of unremarkable stuff still standing (think pre-war walk ups). Maybe one in a hundred of the older buildings is remarkably beautiful.

Still, there don’t seem to be many large scale projects built to last today. Nothing on the scale of Grand Central for a public building has been attempted in a long time, and it’s a shame because it’s quite awe inspiring to commute through there.

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