Brutalist modernity- a study of old and new buildings

[Kyriakos]

It seems that till WW1 and shortly before WW2, there was considerable taste that went into human creations. I decided to focus on architecture in this thread, and compare the old refined buildings to the brutalist current ones, mostly in London.

I chose London for many reasons, i lived there for three years, many other people here probably have visited it at some time, and it used to be a very important city- still is to some extent. So it makes sense to examine how the old London was, and how the New London is starting to look.

Some juxtapositions:

Old apartment block in London:

Modern apartment block in London:

Old English university:

Modern English university:

Old English monumental government building:

Modern English monumental government building:

This is in Thailand's capital, and it is called "The Elephant building"

At least it has some naive appeal, in a lego-duplo kind of way

You can post your own current/old building juxtapositions, or anything related to this. They do not have to be from London, just either examples of modern or pre 1930s architecture

 

[Borachio]

I give you the Gherkin:

And the Globe:

 

[Kyriakos]

Yes, that is probably the ugliest skyscraper in London

 

[Borachio]

You find that ugly?

The "Toast-rack" (Manchester)

 

[Formaldehyde]

So Victorian-style buildings with overly complex facades and other similar architectures from the past have "taste" while modern architecture does not? Is that your premise based on a few modern buildings you think are ugly?

Spoiler :

This one doesn't exist yet:

Not sure about this one:

 

[Glassfan]

Interesting OP Kyriakos. Each generation has it's own distinctive designs based on the latest technologies (ie., "elevators", computor blueprint programs), construction materials (reinforced concrete, plastics) and architectural ideas. What will buildings look like in the future when AI's are designing them for the post-Climate Change apocalypse period?


Original facade, Cleveland Museum of Art, c. 1916.

New CMA atrium, 2012.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I like my city structures as I do my laboratories: clean-looking (smooth curves and lines) and functional.

As an example, I think this is better suited for governing an expanding multicultural metropolitan area.

As opposed to this.

 

[Synobun]

Leave it to Forma to confront every single member for their opinion with a swath of images.

 

[Angst]

I think romanticizing the past is barfable, especially the English past.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Architecture is like everything else. There are good examples of each period as well as bad. But I certainly don't think that all complex facades have "taste" while those which don't do not.

As for me, I'm a huge fan of modern architecture. YMMV.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well as a general trend, post-WW2 architecture is not as interesting or pleasant-looking as the one before it. Surely there are exceptions here and there, but the norm seems to indicate that post-WW2 buildings look worse.

And i do like complicated exteriors of buildings. I prefer Byzantine and Gothic architecture (Byzantine-Gothic, as in the cathedral of San Marco, in Venice, is perhaps a stretch).

Some examples from the city i live in:

Two of the Aristotle's square complex of buildings (designed after WW1, largely built in the 50s) :

While still not as complicated as the old styles, at least this group of buildings have some common style which is a hybrid of byzantine and early-modernist motifs.

This is the opera house of this city.

It is ugly, but at least it is also somewhat imposing... In pseudo-Byzantine style.

Generally the old buildings here are nice. The new ones are mostly crap...

Some of the ugly places have great graffiti though, i walk past this one on occasion, love how the artist painted Bjork

 

[Angst]

Well as a general trend, post-WW2 architecture is not as interesting or pleasant-looking as the one before it.

To whom? Apparently, people do not agree with you. Otherwise they'd build structures in pre-WW2 still, see?

 

[Borachio]

How are you defining buildings?

Here's the bridge at Le Havre:

 

[kramerfan86]

Its fairly harsh to say all newer designs are bad because there are plenty of beautiful pieces of modern architecture. With that said though I've yet to see a brutalist piece that I didnt think was hideous. My undergrad university had a brutalist building and the thing stuck out like a hideous sore thumb on campus.

 

[Kyriakos]

To whom? Apparently, people do not agree with you. Otherwise they'd build structures in pre-WW2 still, see?

It seems most buildings in any style similar to the preWW2 one would cost a lot more to create, which i suspect is one of the main reasons they are so rare now.

 

[Angst]

It seems most buildings in any style similar to the preWW2 one would cost a lot more to create, which i suspect is one of the main reasons they are so rare now.

It is one of the main reasons indeed. It's much less wasteful and unnecessary.

 

[Traitorfish]

Old apartment block in London:

Modern apartment block in London:

You're comparing bourgeois apartments to working class social housing. Not really apples-for-apples, there. Instead, let's try comparing,

British working class urban housing, pre-war:

British working class urban housing, post-war:

Improvement, no? Aesthetically, environmentally and socially, if not perhaps in terms of ornamental masonry.

 

[Angst]

Note that I don't mind old architecture. It's one of the reasons I like Copenhagen. Your romantization of old styles does, however, leave little outside slight pretentiousness - I can't stress enough, however, that I don't think you're pretentious, I just don't think you understand the implications of your aesthetic statements: you simply declare a normativity - considering your opinion as a universal - and present disregard against generations of architectural development. For what is today is an aesthetic tendency if anything, and even if I disagree with it, I will respect that

You're comparing bourgeois apartments to working class social housing. Not really apples-for-apples, there.

This, too. Hence my earlier comment about Britain. Romanticizing the old styles ("Look how nice we used to be!") over modern culture shows - at least in this context - disregard to the actual social conditions that produced those styles.

 

[Kyriakos]

You're comparing bourgeois apartments to working class social housing. Not really apples-for-apples, there.

You are right there, but i could have posted the apartment-blocks in Bayswater, which used to be working class and the area mostly had stables, while now are worth a fortune. Granted they still do not look as good as the ones in Chelsea

 

[Terxpahseyton]

It is one of the main reasons indeed. It's much less wasteful and unnecessary.

I don't know about unnecessary.
Walk through sections of a German city not destroyed during WWII and then walk through sections which were destroyed (and not rebuild in their prior image). It can mean worlds of atmosphere, which set them apart. And while there are of course beautiful modern-architecture-buildings (and some hideous pre-WWII building, be referred to art nouveau architecture), the buildings and city parts propped up post-WWII overall tend to be hideous with hideous atmosphere.
Which is why there is since some time a run on old-school buildings to live in in Germany, whereas the ugly blocks are reserved for those with less money.
Now what has been build has been build and after WWII there was an understandable need to create room for living quickly without worrying about pretty facades. But today we bear the costs and it sadly became the norm to build buildings with dull uninteresting facades. And that is what really matters IMO - what is the norm is what matters, not what people actually like. Because for the atmosphere of an entire section of a city one building usually won't mean a dame. Everyone needs to be in on it. Which requires certain expectations, a certain architectural culture (or regulations). This culture has been destroyed by WWII IMO.

Old-school-facade:

New-school-facade: