All makes perfect sense but why have we built so much rubbish since?
Category Archives: Architecture
Failure of architecture…
Every so often modern architecture is blamed for something or another; normally social ills and the end of civilization.
I’ve never understood why a tower block works for the rich of London but never the poor of London.
Then I saw this…
“From the beginning, however, there was confusion about whether the street decks were public or private space. They were used by milkmen and postmen, but the police deemed them private property and refused to patrol them.”
So the issue could be simply that these places were mismanaged from the start. They are now being torn down at great environmental cost; why?
Kodak…
This is what an industrial death looks like.
THE KODAK CITY on Photography Served
Rochester was based on two companies, Kodak and Xerox. In the early 70s it was one of the richest places in the world. Now it defines depression.
No, please stop this…
…seriously. That’s enough boring steel building that are too big for their surrounding environment.
London was a brick city of beautiful facades and squares. You prefer this?
Poundbury: Architectural shame with a worthy aim…
“However, there is no hiding from the value of the idea that we should care about space as a whole rather than a series of individual units to live in. Public squares, local shops and communities that look out for each other are all worthy aims, it just appears that in this case it hasn’t worked (the feeling of emptiness wasn’t just from it’s partial completion but from something much deeper inside me). I can’t pretend to know the answers but then I wouldn’t expect anyone to think that I would.”
Poundbury: Architectural shame with a worthy aim | ArchDaily
Here is a radical idea; the brick work and the false old world looks don’t matter. It’s the shape and the society that lives in the building that matter.
My guess is that the streets are empty because people don’t work there or shop there. Every morning they get in their cars and drive to an office elsewhere and stop off at Tesco on the way home. Hence the “town” is dead.
Strange thing is that it looks like Disneyland did about ten years ago. A half built copy of something that never really existed.
Less is more…
One of my pet hates. Make something massively complex and watch it become unusable…
Subtraction.com: Train Wreck in D.C.
However, Exitfares. Fantastic idea.
Poundbury
I’ve never been; it’s a long way to go for an hour of driving around.
However, these comments remind me of how I felt in the developments near Disneyland Paris.
“What can I say, it’s a true horror story. A mish mash of styles from different centuries, all added together. It’s a toy town, a museum of a mythical past. There is no soul, no heart, a perfect example of the need for difference, for organic spaces created over time. Constructed squares and public spaces lay empty devoid of the community spirit that was planned. Residents live in quaint and chocolate box ideas of beauty but nothing to do with real design and need. Cars are hidden away, gravel paths replace tarmac. I was waiting to see the film crew around the corner, to see the facade pulled away from this truly ugly and dispiriting space. It’s an over sanitised middle class ghetto that stinks of narrow minded people, it’s a sad simulacra.”