Modern Cities and Buildings Are Ugly - Why That's Okay
In an earlier post I lamented the fact that modern buildings are so very very ugly.
These days we use too many rectangle shapes and not enough circular and triangular elements.
The textures of modern buildings are also too flat and boring and basically have no interesting detail.
Combine that with our utilitarian roads and you end up with the situation we have now.
Why This Is Okay (Really)
I still believe that the above is true but to help me cope with this fact I have realized that these days society pours its money into people these days and not into making beautiful buildings.
For instance, think of Paris France. A beautiful city but when it was built all the money in society went to the top 0.1% and into the buildings they built and owned.
The regular citizen of the day had little education and even less health care.
These days many developed countries have universal healthcare as well as universal education up to at least secondary school levels.
The trade-off therefore is a healthy and educated population instead of expensive and beautiful buildings (at least as I see it). I think that this thought can help a person cope with the glut of architectural ugliness.
Wait, Can We Have Both?
Maybe in the future with automation and the 3-D printing of buildings it might be possible to bring down the costs of building to the point where it is possible to build inexpensively as well as beautifully.
Let's hope when that day comes architects will not have forgotten what it is like to build a nice structure.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. - Procrastilearner
Thx for comments and the upvotes everybody.
Hi @procrastilearner, i like your idea of bringing up this topic. Our architecture may looks ugly, but it is all architect doing. Instead of brief and consulting client on how should they gain in a long term (which benefit and enrich local social economy), We blinded by trying to design building with higher net floor efficiency (for profit of course and in a short term period) and end up with rectangular or boxy building. Which it does not respond to local context, thus making it not just ugly, but also socially and economy unhealthy.
In the end, I believe designer or architect is the key player in making city beautiful again. That is my point of view. Great write up and keep it up.
True, the art of communicating and convincing plays heavy on the role of an architect. I'm interested @procrastilearner, are the roles of architects downplayed or are they highly revered in your context?
With squarish and rectangular design, it can be designed in a more aesthetical manner. While circular and triangle may be nice in some ways, the space optimization for usage (user experience) may be best with space with less awkward corners. All great ancient architecture also do utilize different geometry to build and they possess different aesthetic value as well. Perhaps now we spent less time on how it looks than how functional it is as we are more driven by economic force.
Anyhow, we can see things changing when we have better construction technology like 3D printing which allows us to play with geometry and with minimal cost (labor and mold costing reduction).