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That's often the most affordable housing available for many people. It's simplicity is what makes it inexpensive and therefore affordable.
[not necessarily a bad thing]
I agree. But I also think people deserve more dignified places to live in, regardless of their economic or social status. The apartment complexes you commonly see in the suburbs are just as ugly as the mobile home parks, imo. This is a consequence of zoning and bad urban planning, where housing segregated by income and class is the norm. Can't we do any better?
I'm not all that concerned about architecture. Plenty of prosaic, of not ugly, buildings are incredibly important places to the neighborhoods they inhabit. In fact, the most important part of a building's life cycle is when it is considered the most unlovely. Where I live, the buildings most considered worthless garbage are the cheap one and two story tilt-up commercial buildings, locally called "Buzz Boxes," which were erected as cheap commercial space, typically in older industrial areas. In the past year or two, some of our most important art galleries, creative spaces and cutting-edge businesses have opened up in these buildings. Why? Not because their architecture is lofty and beautiful, but because they're cheap--cheap enough for creative but financially marginal enterprises to take shape inside their tacky concrete shells. Old uses can happen in new buildings, but new uses require old buildings. And not "old buildings" in the sense of historic homes, which were considered ugly in their middle age too, but buildings just old enough to be considered junk but not yet classic.
I agree. But I also think people deserve more dignified places to live in, regardless of their economic or social status. The apartment complexes you commonly see in the suburbs are just as ugly as the mobile home parks, imo. This is a consequence of zoning and bad urban planning, where housing segregated by income and class is the norm. Can't we do any better?
Not if the politicians and developers don't want to.
[do you realize how political urban planning is?]
02-05-2012, 09:55 PM
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I disagree to an extent. There is still plenty of modern architecture and real life examples that has plenty of character and still looks great.
However, there should also be more emphasis on historic architecture as well, and plenty of different types of architecture in general.
Also, there is still plenty of ugly modern architecture that exists with a lack of character.
Great architecture that has character in reality is very important for neighborhoods and cities/towns, and should be an important national/international priority in urban planning standards.
Architects should have more freedom in what they want to create and see built, and not have so much excessive bureaucracy get in the way of this.
Just for fun, here's a picture of the warehouse in the Indiana Jones movie they were talking about in the audio. Where the lost ark was stored. Something really vast and out of proportion with the human scale. The sensation of overwhelming size you get when stepping foot in a big box store like Walmart or Home Depot. Or walking through the enormous parking lot of one of these places. Or when you're staring up at an immense 100-story skyscraper. The cold unpleasant feeling of looking into the abyss.
Horizontally and vertically, everything in the modernist environment seems to be out of proportion, violating what we know about civic arts and human dimension. The cities are too tall, the suburbs too wide. Different forms of gigantism with nothing in between. We seem to dwell in an environment of extremes.
Only if you look at it for what it appears to be rather than what it is...the thing about the first shot is, IT ISN'T ACTUALLY A WAREHOUSE. It's a movie set, and the long view in the distance is actually a matte painting to create the illusion of a massive, endless warehouse.
Urban gigantism often has a purpose--to deliberately intimidate. Buildings intended to exude authority and prominence make use of the fact that they make people feel uncomfortable and tiny to encourage the proper attitude of respect and deference--from medieval cathedrals to modern government and corporate buildings. If you feel like a bug under a microscope when entering a building, it's because the building's owner wants you to feel that way.
The most comfortable environments are generally the ones where you are being suckered the most--casinos are designed to be easy to enter but difficult to leave (entrances are prominent, while exits are not obvious and interior are deliberately labyrinthine.) The better-designed department stores and big boxes use this model--IKEA does it particularly well.
I disagree to an extent. There is still plenty of modern architecture and real life examples that has plenty of character and still looks great.
However, there should also be more emphasis on historic architecture as well, and plenty of different types of architecture in general.
Also, there is still plenty of ugly modern architecture that exists with a lack of character.
Great architecture that has character in reality is very important for neighborhoods and cities/towns, and should be an important national/international priority in urban planning standards.
Architects should have more freedom in what they want to create and see built, and not have so much excessive bureaucracy get in the way of this.
LOL Excessive bureaucracy is the least of an architect's worries.
Just for fun, here's a picture of the warehouse in the Indiana Jones movie they were talking about in the audio. Where the lost ark was stored. Something really vast and out of proportion with the human scale. The sensation of overwhelming size you get when stepping foot in a big box store like Walmart or Home Depot. Or walking through the enormous parking lot of one of these places. Or when you're staring up at an immense 100-story skyscraper. The cold unpleasant feeling of looking into the abyss.
Skyscrapers don't do a job of being overwhelming at street level, it's hard to grasp the scale of a skyscraper at street level. For example:
The 5th tallest building in the city is located on the left, but it's hard to notice the height, there's not enough viewing angle:
I agree, with skyscrapers, you need to crane your neck to realize how tall they are, and if they have a podium and setback, you might not even be able to see the skyscraper if you're on the same side of the street. Meanwhile with big box stores no matter where you look, it feels endless, and you don't know where to look for what you want and feel like you'll get lost. With skyscrapers, that's not an issue and they can act like landmarks.
I think one of the key points from building at the human scale is the effect of customers who drive. When you're driving by a store, you're going too fast to notice the intricate details that make old commercial streets attractive. The best way to get a store noticed by drivers is to have a huge plain facade and a huge sign.
I agree, with skyscrapers, you need to crane your neck to realize how tall they are, and if they have a podium and setback, you might not even be able to see the skyscraper if you're on the same side of the street.
I think it's the reverse. A setback would make it easier to see a skyscraper on the same side of the street. The links I posted without setbacks it was difficult to get a full view of height of the skyscraper.
Btw, looking at ciscokid's image link, that doesn't look like a real skyscraper; it's simulated.
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