Earlier quoted context omitted.
To latch on to this great post there are a couple of other worthwhile discussion points: We're still in a nuclear war mental model. We can't build beautiful things if we think they'll be destroyed in a war. We still have a societal level PTSD from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and other things. World War I veterans came back with horrific problems. That's why architects like Frank Lloyd…
How is it that America can still be traumatised from the world wars architecturally but europe is not? I don't really buy the argument that america builds badly because of fear of destruction. It's more that we are an utterly utilitarian culture. We have nothing old, and cannot imagine that anything might become old. Our goals are to maximize profits while minimizing cost, so we end up building $10m houses out of shi…
Everything is either an aggressively ugly concrete bunker[1], a generic cubish cement or brick and glass mishmash[2] or a glass and steel monolith, maybe with extra facets[3].
You just have to look at what the old Imperial Institute[4] was replaced with[5] and the charmless glass box they plugged onto it later[6].
Nearly every building that has been modified this century has gotten unashamedly uglier. Even cathedrals grow tumors.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hove_Town_Hall
[2]: basically any mid rise residential which can be like this https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Low-rise_flats,_Turv... to more recent variations on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Low_Rise_Apartme...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard
[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1903-11-04_front_Imp...
[5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherfield_Building,_...
[6] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_College_Lon...
