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My least favorite buildings of all are those that ape a real style poorly and/or are poorly executed, but that's a subjet for another thread...
So what real architectural style do you dislike, least like or even passionately hate?
I am not a fan of Frank Gehry-ish deconstructionist style buildings. Call me old fashioned, but I think a building should look like a building instead of a pile of spray-painted scrap metal. They must be complete nightmares to maintain too.
I also dislike Brutalist architecture... they evoke feelings of oppression and domination in me and simply make me uncomfortable.
If I had to pick a historic style I would have to say the more "frilly" Old World styles like Baroque... especially the insanely fussy stuff built in France during the 16-1700s like Versailles. Sure it's beautiful and impressive to look at, but it also makes me uncomfortable somewhere deep down in my psyche. Maybe it's a past-life thing...
I'll go with the Gehry-esque "deconstructivist" style because it seems concerned not with its context or the nature of what it is made of, but rather in getting attention, like a neglected adolescent making animal noises in the back of the classroom.
Brutalist
Modernist - A rather vague term I know but most buildings which to me either look like they are just trying too hard to be "pared down" or modernist houses which look more like upscale dentists than homes. I like craftsmanship and details on a building. Some modernist buildings are stunning , most make me shudder and feel too clinical for me.
Baroque
Rococco
And yet I adore places like Prague which have a wealth of the latter two styles for example so I am not always consistent. It works as an ensemble I suppose but taken on its own single merit it makes me shudder with the bling factor. At least I can admire the skills which has gone into it I suppose without always finding it esthetically pleasing....
Like post-modern art, which I also dislike as being talentless, post-modern architecture doesn't require much skill since it has few or no "rules" or restraints which the more talented are able to create within the context. With post-modern architecture nothing (ie. nature, symetry, functional practicality, etc.) can be totally disregarded and the most simple shapes can be used. What's the challenge or creativity in that?
Like post-modern art, which I also dislike as being talentless, post-modern architecture doesn't require much skill since it has few or no "rules" or restraints which the more talented are able to create within the context. With post-modern architecture nothing (ie. nature, symetry, functional practicality, etc.) can be totally disregarded and the most simple shapes can be used. What's the challenge or creativity in that?
I have to take exception to part of what you said. There are more "rules" in post modern work than the alternative (modern) in that post modernism was concerned with context, classical proportions, symmetry, and established forms. I do agree that that makes for less of a challenge than designing with a blank slate, but truthfully, any architect that can get his vision built, no matter what it is, has my respect.
What post modernism was often criticized for was its devotion to historical forms without the technical relationship to those forms. In other words, the forms were an expression of something unrelated to the construction.
I personally hate post-modern architecture because it turned its back on all the theories of modernism instead of taking that way of thinking and expanding on it and trying to correct the mistakes that were made in modernism, instead post-modernism created is own collection of problems without addressing the mistakes of modernism.
I am also not a fan of deconstructivism that guys like Gehry and Libeskind do, I feel like they completely ignore the user's interaction with the architecture and more about the "step back and look" aspect. I remember walking around a building in SF by Libeskind that had so many awkward spaces that would of gotten me chewed out in studio if I designed something like that. It annoys me when their garbage gets showcased when there is so much better architecture being built out there today.
There are brutalist buildings in downtown Boston. They look like a backdrop for George Orwell's "1984." The interiors are also bizarrely designed to make them useless as working buildings.
There was a brutalist building on the grounds of the genteel old buildings place where I work. It was deeply ugly by itself, but especially so surrounded by graceful appropriate buildings from the late 19th century. It was supposed to be a center for autistic children. It would drive anyone nuts.
Once there was a bomb threat phoned in "for midnight at the front door." We stood at a large glass area debating what area constituted the front door. I suggested that, if there was going to be a bomb, we were in a great place, because the whole building felt like a bunker anyway.
Midnight came and went. We never figured out where the front was. People who worked there for years couldn't identify a proper enterance for visitors.
Thankfully, it was torn down when that part of the property was sold off for condos, which, by the way, are quite graceful in the setting.
At first, I thought it was a joke to say that "Brutalism" was actually a school of design- I thought it was just lousy ugly concrete modern buildings.
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It works as an ensemble I suppose but taken on its own single merit it makes me shudder with the bling factor. At least I can admire the skills which has gone into it I suppose without always finding it esthetically pleasing....
