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Crimes in Concrete
61–70 of 134 posts
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, false: "Survival is the real measurement of how much we like it". Many structures survive because their destruction would release regulated toxins, which were unregulated when built.
One way to read that is the regulation is preventing progress.
But a better way to read it is that regulation is protecting us from the mistakes of the past. Unless you fancy inhaling asbestos?
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#63The only pre-20thC buildings that remain are the ones that survive. The ones that survive are the ones we like and that are able to survive (not plywood and well built). Survival is the real measurement of how much we like it - it is the ultimate arbiter of aesthetics/beauty/cultural significance/engineering excellence, and it trumps all the chatter of self-appointed critics. If it's garbage, we tear it down or stop…
> The only pre-20thC buildings that remain are the ones that survive. This has become a cliché talking-point, but it isn't entirely true. Or, at least, it doesn't fully apply here. The best contrast to "modernism" would be the episode directly preceding it, namely Art Nouveau or Jugendstil. There are lots of European cities both large and small that were predominantly built in this style, because it coincided with th…
Hello, former neighbor (I lived in the Paul-Lincke-Ufer, then at Lausitzer 21 for a while).
You live in perhaps the nicest residential neighborhood in the developed western world, as far as I can tell.
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#64As a former architect I agree with most of this. For those not familiar, this quote is the gist:
> Making Dystopia is much more than a very detailed critique of a building or two here or there. It is an angry criticism of an entire worldview—the worldview of the type of person who much prefers his worldview to the world, and in so doing causes untold ruination.
Specifically the modernists ala Le Corbusier, Robert Moses etc. were prone to a view that everything that had come before was garbage and that we needed to tear it all down and start over.
> While claiming to be continuators, the modernists also claimed to be revolutionary, wanting to rebuild the world from a blank slate. Considering what they actually achieved, this was a more accurate representation of their activities; and Le Corbusier hardly saw a city that he did not want to knock down and build again, as if no one had ever thought of anything before him.
So the book (and this review) aren't talking so much about a particular style of building (and hence the lack of photos) but rather the cultural phenomenon of the modernist movement in architecture and how remarkably well they stamped their oppressive worldview on the world.
It's a long read, but worthwhile.
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#65It's always been kind of amazing to me that people will get all upset over a building but that often changes with time. Same thing with a piece of art. Locally here there was a most controversial design for a parking garage. People just hated it but now its almost adored. https://foursquare.com/v/the-habitrail-parking-garage/4eb994... Same thing with the new Broad Art Museum by the late architect Zaha Hadid. Totally…
I'm familiar with both those buildings, and can attest to the fact that sometimes the boldest and inscrutable design decisions eventually become the most well-loved. High risk, high reward.
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#66I am impressed by how much literary wank the author managed to fit into this article while at the same time providing zero arguments other than "waaahhh, I don't like it, therefore everyone else must feel the same".
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's fascinating how neatly being politically conservative or progressive lines up with the corresponding architectural view Only it's really not that neat. When the brutalist monstrosities (you may correctly infer I don't like most of them one bit, though I do like much modernism) were being designed and built post-war, brutalism particularly was embraced as enthusiastically on all parts of the political spectrum.…
The was a somewhat more "humane" streak at the core of this movement than you make out. Specifically, these buildings were supposed to serve an egalitarian purpose, removing class differences previously expressed with fancy fascades etc. This was also a time of far heavier air pollution than we today ever experience, at least in "the west". The typical multi-family building were therefore built not right at the sidew…
> The was a somewhat more "humane" streak at the core of this movement than you make out. Specifically, these buildings were supposed to serve an egalitarian purpose, removing class differences previously expressed with fancy fascades etc.
Maybe egalitarianism isn’t as humane as it seems. Maybe if you bring everyone down to the same level, you find that you’ve reduced everything worth striving for to rubble.
And maybe all those artisans and decorators the modernists drove out of business deserved to make a living too.
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#68It's fascinating how neatly being politically conservative or progressive lines up with the corresponding architectural view. I like brutalism, but I disagree with the removal of Scruton from that position, it seems political. What annoys me about articles like the above is that they seem to ignore the possibility that aesthetics involves a lot of subjectivity. The argument seems to boil down to, "of course it's ugly…
> The argument seems to boil down to, "of course it's ugly, just look at it" Yes, but only because the heart of the modernist movement has been an attempt to deny, belittle and mock the idea that the instinctive aesthetic reaction of the majority to their creations is important or valid. If you think their constructions are ugly, that's not their problem, it's your problem. Firstly, you're too stupid, conservative an…
So lets see:
- Modernism isn't a collection a movements across different countries/mediums in the early 20th century, but a "movement" whose "heart" is making intellectuals feel better than regular folks.
- No space for differing aesthetic opinions, the only real art is what you feel in your gut.
- Modernists are actively trying to change the places you live in work, despite the fact that the height of the movement happening decades ago.
- Specifically call out Jazz/Atonal music, apropos nothing.
Look, I'm all for differing opinions, but yours are more political than aesthetic (proving the parent's point). Plenty of modern architecture is aesthetically pleasing to the untrained eye. Some of it is not, and some of it is just objectively bad. However, your particular point of view, which presupposes some elite cabal, pushing there modernist agenda/degenerate art on an unknowing and unwilling populace, deserves some more scrutiny.
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#69The only pre-20thC buildings that remain are the ones that survive. The ones that survive are the ones we like and that are able to survive (not plywood and well built). Survival is the real measurement of how much we like it - it is the ultimate arbiter of aesthetics/beauty/cultural significance/engineering excellence, and it trumps all the chatter of self-appointed critics. If it's garbage, we tear it down or stop…
> The only pre-20thC buildings that remain are the ones that survive. This has become a cliché talking-point, but it isn't entirely true. Or, at least, it doesn't fully apply here. The best contrast to "modernism" would be the episode directly preceding it, namely Art Nouveau or Jugendstil. There are lots of European cities both large and small that were predominantly built in this style, because it coincided with th…
> The best contrast to "modernism" would be the episode directly preceding it, namely Art Nouveau or Jugendstil.
Wasn’t Art Deco in between?
As an aside, I honestly don’t know why anyone tried to ‘improve’ art away from Art Nouveau/Arts & Crafts/Jugendstil: as far as I’m concerned they were the absolute pinnacle, the ne plus ultra of artistic endeavour. I mean, just look at William Morris’s work!
Re: Crimes in Concrete
#70It's fascinating how neatly being politically conservative or progressive lines up with the corresponding architectural view. I like brutalism, but I disagree with the removal of Scruton from that position, it seems political. What annoys me about articles like the above is that they seem to ignore the possibility that aesthetics involves a lot of subjectivity. The argument seems to boil down to, "of course it's ugly…
More to the point, look at what people choose to live in. Good modernist and brutalist homes sell quickly and at a significant premium over prevailing market rates. Modernism got a bad name in many Western countries, because it was used as an architectural and philosophical justification for cheap and shoddy system-built housing to fill the post-war housing gap. That doesn't make rectilinear forms and bare concrete i…
> Good modernist and brutalist homes sell quickly and at a significant premium over prevailing market rates.
Is that because they are good, or because they serve to signal class status?