trader/warrior
Deity
I really hate the "giant branded box" look of big suburban department store chains and the like.
Ugliest buildings thread
- Thread starter Kyriakos
- Start date
The Esplanada dos Ministérios is modernist architecture. That's a fact, and I've never seen anyone dispute it before.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Tahuti
Writing Deity
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2005
- Messages
- 9,492
"Free from tradition"
That's the best I could come up with; I notice modernist buildings aren't built on any tradition, and instead are built on a set of abstract principles independent of the culture and nature of the locality wherever its built, so that many modernist buildings resemble each other in one way or another, even if they were conceived completely independently without any influence coming from one way or more.
H4run
Deity
this is the things, some seems mix up between the term modern and postmodern. Modern is form follow function, while postmodern form not necessary follow function or meaning it just for the sense of exploration and fun. So the asymmetrical and unnecessary form that mostly focus on the form of the object or building without presenting any function except art itself is postmodern art, not modern one. That is if I still remember correctly.
H4run
Deity
To sum up
Traditional->form follow meaning
Modernist-> form follow function
postmodern-> form follow fun
Tahuti
Writing Deity
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2005
- Messages
- 9,492
Really nice, thank you.
I do note that Postmodern architecture - while opposed to the ideas behind Modernism itself - does consider Modernist architecture to be yet another source of inspiration alongside traditional styles.
I think I've said this before, but I think that's the most ugly thing a building can be. Buildings don't go in art galleries, they are firmly rooted in place, and have to be judged by their background.
That, for example is the only objection I can make of Owen's appraisal of the Olympic Tower. Taken in isolation, it's beautiful and interesting. I agree with him very much that it "feels like something out of a sci-fi novel." The only problem is that it's not, it's stuck next to the Olympic Stadium, in London. And so the beautiful red structure strikes me as nothing more than an unfinished scaffolding or piece of construction equipment like in the picture of mecca, at first glance. And that impression sticks with the viewer.
I disagree with you that the wide base is necessarily a problem, though. I think it's one of the nicest things about Abraj Al Bait. It feels like a building designed by aesthetic standards, rather then the constraints of real estate that are forcing you to build upwards. If anything, a single giant tower would look even more embarrassingly phallic. This at least looks like a manmade mountain.
To highlight how good it could have been, and how important place is, we can compare Abraj Al Bait to Moscow State University.
Not as big, but an incredibly imposing building. But They built it 5 kms from the city center, with space for it to belong to. The Abrag Al Bait doesn't belong to the space, it simply dominates it through brute force. The fact that it is place directly next to the Grand Mosque, which the entire city is built around, and is quite low and flat, almost makes it look like it's built in direct defiance of the city around it.
So for me at least, place is just about everything with a building.
Entirely agree
The Moscow State University must be quite the sight. And indeed it works due to being a bit outside the city center. One can still see it from a great distance, so it appears like a scientific colony
On the other hand it would look trashy if built next to the Kremlin so as to lord over it and be all about which monument is the main thing there. In Mekka that Royal Hotel is just ruining the city landscape more, despite being even more massive and a very impressive human construction (but i hate the clocktower anyway).
H4run
Deity
Kaiserguard said:
hey your welcome
that's true, I think the unique part of posmodernism is also how it is lax with the sense of time. So yes it can present both the traditional and modern art simultaneously, or just simply refer or borrow some of its aspect, because postmodern art doesn't border itself in expression, if I remember correctly reading about it long long time ago.
Josu
Emperor
Are statues valid in this thread?
Yep, this is a huge candy bear in a roundabout in Majadahonda
BEC! (Bilbao Exhibition Center)
Yep, this is a huge candy bear in a roundabout in Majadahonda
BEC! (Bilbao Exhibition Center)
carmen510
Deity
The George L. Mosse Humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; this is one of those extreme instances where form doesn't fit at all with function.
SS-18 ICBM
Oscillator
What a fancy-looking nuclear bunker.
A plucky little demolition crew should remove this monstrous clock thing:
So am I the only person in the world who thinks this building is awesome? I loved how it dominates the landscape and the color melds with the desert. It looks freakin cool
Pegasus_77
Prince of the Wealth
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2013
- Messages
- 226
I think that whoever lives in that building is likely turning to a serial killer :O
I dont see why you think in that way
Perfection
The Great Head.
Lovely Minneapolis...
Riverside Plaza - before recent renovations
After
Riverside Plaza - before recent renovations
After
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
That's really modern in the sense of epoch rather than principle, though, modernity rather than modernism. Modernism as a movement within architecture was concerned with rationality rather than simple distance from tradition, with the basically very humanistic principle that buildings are "machines for living in". It was more than just concrete-and-corners, which seems to be the sum of its characteristics so far as CFC is concerned.
And the folks who designed Brasília, Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, both direct disciples of Le Corbusier, very much claimed to be building "machines for living" and employing rational principles when building their concrete boxes.
The problem with (much of) Modernist architecture is not it's lofty premises, but the fact that instead of building "machines for living" they ended up building ugly, dysfunctional and dislocated buildings. Le Corbusier himself was famously sued by some people he designed houses for because their flat horizontal roofs would lead to water accumulation and infiltration, with the roof collapsing in some cases.
