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Post by tory on Jan 26, 2020 12:21:52 GMT
I know - I really don't get it.
It's that whole urban hipster, brutalist coffee table book rubbish if you ask me. In some ways it's actually quite offensive to the people who have to live there.
People want to live in beautiful places. Instead, some cunt behind a table somewhere thought about planning, zones, quotas and came up with these hellholes. There is no consideration for the eyeline, aesthetics or history at all. They just took a massive dump and that's what came out.
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 26, 2020 12:26:18 GMT
I find it deeply ironic that you, a person who shows scant regard for the living conditions of anyone, decides to highlight this area of concern only when pure aesthetics are being discussed.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2020 12:29:27 GMT
To be fair there are plenty of examples of good modernist architecture and I can also see why the sheer monumentalism of some of these buildings holds some kind of dystopion thrill, like the art design of Bladerunner does. But ultimately too often it feels like it's celebrating a kind of oppressive ugliness.
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 26, 2020 15:17:56 GMT
ooh a FERN
oh ooh
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2020 15:23:22 GMT
What is it you really like about those last two images John? It's potentially an interesting thing to discuss.
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 26, 2020 15:38:26 GMT
It's probably the same things you think are oppressive, G! The sheer size, the bleakness, the lack of anything decorative, the way it dwarfs everything around.
I find a certain kind of urban architecture really attractive. Metro stations in Berlin, Prague and Budapest have genuinely exciting features (to me, anyway!)
It's very difficult to explain why we like what we like, as you know. But this kind of landscape is very popular.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2020 15:45:15 GMT
Yeah I can see that. I wonder though if there's an element of the exotic about all of this. There's a building near me in Watford that actually looks quite a lot like that last photo (not as large thankfully). It depresses me every time I have to walk past it, so this kind of architecture can't be an escapism for me, it's too close to home, too familiar.
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 26, 2020 16:08:27 GMT
Yes, I think there's something in that.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2020 16:29:15 GMT
This is the building in Watford. The first photo actually cuts quite a bit of it off, it's a huge bloody thing.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Jan 26, 2020 16:43:02 GMT
Imagine going back to this building after a tough day at the office though. It's not exactly gonna lift your spirits, is it?
I like some brutalist architecture and can understand the appeal but a lot of this stuff is concrete fucking nightmare. Plus in this country with the weather the concrete ages badly too.
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 26, 2020 16:52:02 GMT
It's not just residential structures tho'. I think me and thee said goodbye at this station in Berlin, D, remember? maybe it was a bit more rundown at the time. Anyway it's striking, somehow. Stirring.
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Post by tory on Jan 26, 2020 16:52:14 GMT
I find it deeply ironic that you, a person who shows scant regard for the living conditions of anyone, decides to highlight this area of concern only when pure aesthetics are being discussed. When have I mentioned having scant regard for the conditions of anyone? You are a cunt sometimes.
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Post by tory on Jan 26, 2020 16:57:33 GMT
I grew up in Croydon. I spent 5 years after school every weeknight waiting for the 64 bus on Wellesley Road to take me home. It was a horrible wind tunnel. There was nothing beautiful about it - and this was before the tram brought some sort of wisdom back to proceedings - in that they understood that trams had been a good idea and it was a bad idea to get rid of them back in the fifties. There's an underpass in the middle of the road that then echoes around, being amplified on really bad, windy days, which were often. An absolute disaster.
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Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 26, 2020 16:57:47 GMT
sorry T still - the point holds that we're talking purely about the LOOK of things. Anyway - it's simply not true that the living conditions in so-called brutalist blocks are appalling. Major European cities are ringed by housing estates full of Plattenbau or paneláci and they provide comfortable, affordable living for people of all classes. The only people I've come across who show disdain for this kind of thing are outsiders who do nothing but observe. Talk to academics or plumbers who live in Prague suburbs and they're proud of their homes.
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Post by oleandermedian on Jan 26, 2020 17:28:51 GMT
I think it’s a fascinating building. The side/end is the most interesting part. The influence of Le Corbusier is clear in the pillars on the ground levels. The blank concrete above that is very pleasing in its proportions – it’s a golden section. The top part is another golden section. The projecting bits are slightly oppressive, possibly on account of their height and the way they evoke the nasty machicolations of medieval castles. The architects probably had experience with water towers. Much of the immediate ugliness is in the incidental modifications or accretions, not the design – such as the randomness of the windows and the air conditioning boxes. But as a whole it absolutely bears looking at.
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