51–60 of 72 posts
Weird that there are so many comments defending McMansions here, I would have expected the opposite. We have no problem pointing out poorly, haphazardly, or tastelessly designed tech devices and applications with terrible UIs, and tech companies with more money than design sense, but when it comes to a tasteless house, criticism is elitist gatekeeping?
> Disclaimer: These same principles do not always apply to Modernist or even canonically Postmodern architecture. These principles are for the classical or traditional architecture most residential homes are modeled after. Seems like an obvious way out of this conundrum is reclassifying these so-called mcmansions as postmodern. Description instead of prescription.
You would have the same critiques but applied from a different perspective. It’s like reclassifying a really bad plane as a helicopter. The same critiques wouldn’t apply but it would probably be an even worse helicopter.
My apartment in Zurich will last 100+ years but their home won't last 10.
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I will shit on your porch and you will have to respect my cultural decisions as you step over it.
See, the "your" in there is what we call a possessive pronoun. It indicates that something (in this case, my porch) is owned by someone (in this case, me). That makes what you are proposing doing a property rights issue, not cultural criticism. Shit on your own porch all you want.
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Adding onto a house over and over would probably create the same issues with inconsistency and mismatched styles. With later additions, there's at least a decent reason for that inconsistency though. McMansions lack that consistency from the start.
Perhaps this lack of consistency is deliberate: “this house is trying to look like a miniature version of an estate that grew over many generations”. Curse not the McMansion. Rejoice in The People’s Gormenghast.
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See, the "your" in there is what we call a possessive pronoun. It indicates that something (in this case, my porch) is owned by someone (in this case, me). That makes what you are proposing doing a property rights issue, not cultural criticism. Shit on your own porch all you want.
Fine, I will shit on the public sidewalk easement.
Not sure how (or why) you've gone from "we shouldn't be judging other people's taste" to "I get to defecate wherever I want."
A lot of my friends enjoy sending links to this around from time to time, and for me I just don't care. It just all comes across as very elitist navel gazing. I don't actually care what other peoples properties look like. It's also kind of faux populist because while the homes they are criticizing are certainly higher income for their area, a lot of these are like $500K homes in exurbs. The people that enjoy laughing…
I dunno, my Mom in the midwest thinks it's the funniest thing ever, having grown up in an area where all the houses looked like this. There's some element of satisfaction knowing that you can't buy good taste
When I see the equivalent hate blog for the $5M greige coastal condo class aesthetic I’ll believe you
Some of the houses trumpeted as “good” look like econoboxes with a front door and a roof. Some houses claimed to have “beautiful 1/3 proportions” look tiny even though my eyes can see the second and third floor windows! A hedge line either side of your path to your front door turns your garden into useless wasted space.
By contrast the “multi mass” look actually makes the house look bigger and suggests it has multiple disconnected living spaces - which sounds lovely, no need to always be forced on top of each other.
What if the “single roof line” aesthetic is an accident? What if it’s from a simpler time when resources to build your farm house were limited so you had to be efficient? Adopting it as some kind of ideal ignores that it might’ve just been practical.
It seems taste is personal but criticism is universal.
Sanctimonious bastards, get off my over-manicured lawn ;)
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Uhh, these are not humble middle class homes. These are the definition of American excess and the perpetual "me, me, me" attitude that sees an f250 with 5 feet of ass hanging outside the standard parking space giving everyone else a hard time. And of course they are basically also built by George Bluth, so all this material expenditure is going towards a terrible product that is already falling apart the day after th…
> Uhh, these are not humble middle class homes. You misunderstand; the target audience for ”McMansion Hell” is not the people living in a ”McMansion” but those who have less than that and would aspire to more.