My Theory of Architecture (Or Why Modern Buildings Suck So Badly)

TLDR Summary

• Modern buildings are rectangular, smooth textured and ... boring
• Buildings need to contain a variety of shapes like circles, triangles as well as rectangles.
• Buildings need to have interesting textures and details.

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Modern cities are filled with dreary and boring buildings. As a result our cities are not really places that people get attached to. So I have developed a couple of rules that are basic to at least giving a building a chance of being nice to look at.

Rule #1: Use a Balance of Geometric Shapes

There is an idea in architecture that a good looking and interesting building needs to have a balance of the basic geometric shapes within it. This means that there should be in any building circles, triangles as well as squares or rectangles.

Sadly most modern buildings don't even try to do this. Not even a little bit. Take a tour of any modern city and what shape do you see? Rectangles, squares, more rectangles and oh yeah, more squares. What is it about rectangles that modern architects like so much?

Honestly I think most of architecture school could probably be boiled down into one 15 minute class which goes like this: "Squares and rectangles, use them. Use lots of them. You can't go wrong with the good ol' rectangle. Here's your diploma." (end sarcasm).

Occasionally one will see the odd circle or triangle thrown and god forbid an oval, a hexagon or an octagon. Unfortunately they are typically lost among the vast number of square and rectangular shapes that dominate our cities. When it finally comes time to demolish these buildings there will be no one protesting to preserve them and their historical significance. More likely the dominant emotion will be: 'good riddance'.

Rule #2 Fractal Textures

Going back to most modern buildings. What are they built of, or what are they clad in? Usually the answer is going to be glass, brick or concrete. These give boring, smooth and easy to memorize surfaces. To build an interesting building it needs to have a surface texture that is hard to memorize like stone or at least have a level of fairly complex details.

A fractal, in layman's term is something that looks self-similar at any scale you are looking at. A good example is a coastline. From space, a coastline like Norway's has a certain craggy look to it. Get closer, say in an airplane at 30,000 feet and that coastline is going to have a similar craggy look to it. Get closer, say a bird's eye-view of a hundred feet or so and the coastline will still have that same craggy look to it.

To be interesting, a building should have a level of detail that is hard to memorize at a distance of 1000 feet, and a distance of 100 feet and a distance of 10 feet. As you approach the building, the more detail should resolve and the level of detail should also be hard to memorize (unlike most of today's modern boring glass ice cubes).

Thank you for reading. Have a nice day.