Are "Modern" American Architects Simply Not Creative or Talented? (home, church)
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I'll stick with the dogma of 5000 years of art history and the greatest feats of human achievement. You can go ahead and get choked up with emotion at the boy wonders and their giant bathtubs. They are just too beautiful for words aren't they?
You are dictating that architects must build in x style (i'm guessing classicism right?) because you don't like modern architecture. Guess what, not everyone agrees with you.
I'll stick with the dogma of 5000 years of art history and the greatest feats of human achievement. You can go ahead and get choked up with emotion at the boy wonders and their giant bathtubs. They are just too beautiful for words aren't they?
I said I like the 'bathtub'. Aesthetically it's ok, but it's not my style - it's very much a student project. I wouldn't call it beautiful though.
You know a lot of historical buildings are very 'minimal.' There is no right or wrong here.
Last edited by archineer; 03-01-2013 at 01:52 PM..
no i'm not, i'm rejecting the philosophies of modernism.
There are no 'philosophies of modernism' anymore. It's just a style like any other - it is only relevant because for the most part it honestly expresses modern construction technology (of course you disagree with this but it's true, architects abandoned history because they couldn't reconcile traditional form with modern construction methods- it wasn't the only reason but it was the main one)
And what type of 'modernism' are you talking about? International style? Minimalism? High tech? Deconstructivism? The blob? Organic architecture? 'Eco' architecture?
There are no 'philosophies of modernism' anymore. It's just a style like any other - it is only relevant because for the most part it honestly expresses modern construction technology (of course you disagree with this but it's true, architects abandoned history because they couldn't reconcile traditional form with modern construction methods- it wasn't the only reason but it was the main one)
And what type of 'modernism' are you talking about? International style? Minimalism? High tech? Deconstructivism? The blob? Organic architecture? 'Eco' architecture?
No its not 'just a style like any other'. It in fact declared itself as being a liberation from styles and being the true form of architecture. It is a collection of 'architectural values', a (religious/philosophical) movement, and one which instead of building upon declared the death and abandonment of all styles which came before it. It threw away 5000 years and declared today to be year 0. Now if that is not egotism and pretentiousness gone amuck than what is?
No its not 'just a style like any other'. It in fact declared itself as being a liberation from styles and being the true form of architecture.
Yes back in the 20's- you need to get with the times. Modernism was resurrected after the silly po-mo of the 70's as 'neo-modernism' primarily high tech and minimalism, both are just styles nothing more. Well there is some philosophical idealism to both (minimalism being a rejection of mass consumerism for instance) but neither school preaches they are the one true style. There is no 'truth' in architecture, as architecture is just a product of its time nothing more. We live in the technological/industrial age and the 'leading edge' in design reflects this.
Edit: Neo classicists have made much the same claim that it is the 'one true style' it's not unique to modernism.
I'd also note that deconstructivism has a lot of heavyweight theoretical baggage to it as well, I don't take it to seriously though. It definitely doesn't have the crusading spirit of early modernism.
Last edited by archineer; 03-01-2013 at 02:04 PM..
It is a collection of 'architectural values', a (religious/philosophical) movement, and one which instead of building upon declared the death and abandonment of all styles which came before it. It threw away 5000 years and declared today to be year 0. Now if that is not egotism and pretentiousness gone amuck than what is?
You are wrong, I do not see it this way at all. The styles that came before modernism all abandoned what came before them, it's nothing new. What changed this time was technology, modern architecture stylistically is just a product of modern construction technology. Yes there was a lot of socialist idealism that went along with the early modernists, but it was more a symptom of the 'spirit of the age' people really thought the worlds problems would be cured by industry and technological progress. These days it's been abandoned, I don't know of one architect who preaches some dogma it's the one true style at all. The only thing we really believe in is building with some integrity, as i've said before I do not want to build fakes. (FYI I would call myself an 'eco-minimalist' if there is such a thing)
Perhaps you can not see the forest for the trees, that modernism is the bedrock of your ('our') entire belief system and culture (at the very least as regards architecture). Modernism announced all traditional forms of art, architecture, morality, philosophy, basically everything society had built up to be dead, and among academics they still are. The rigid rules of the first modernists have naturally been continuously rejected or rewritten as generations pass the torch, part of the whole philosophy is to reject the morality (beliefs) of those before you and create your own 'enlightened' set of morality and beliefs. The only way we could have giant bathtubs and thousand foot shards today and an overwhelming lack of ornament and the disappearance of centuries old motifs and symbols is because of modernism. And industrialization has little to do with it, the industrial age was in the early 1800s, and it gave us a proliferation of even more ornate and beautiful architecture than ever before. Technology has nothing to do with the blandness and sterility ('honesty' ) of modern architecture, our technology makes it easier and cheaper than ever to create detail down to the smallest acanthus leaf or most articulated arabesque.
Last edited by HiFi; 03-01-2013 at 02:08 PM..
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care to elaborate?
