Rich and Strange Aeons

New link: why we hate modern architecture. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/10/why-you-hate-contemporary-architecture Long but mostly good. Big-name architects hate beauty and plant life. Modern buildings in general hate decoration. I think there's one possible reason for that which the authors only lightly touch on: labor is relatively more expensive these days. This is related a couple of quibbles: one is an end-piece swipe at skycrapers in general, and the other is a repeated claim "until 1900 when people made things they were beautiful." Strong selection effect there: we see the better made and preserved elite buildings more. Relatedly, in 1800 your artisans to cover your building in rococo carvings were a lot cheaper, if you were someone who could build a big building in the first place.

Though they note that for the cost of keeping a Gehry building functional, you could probably afford a lot of decoration.

Peter Eisenman is a nasty piece of work:

"For example, Eisenman split the master bedroom in two so the couple could not sleep together, installed a precarious staircase without a handrail, and initially refused to include bathrooms."

"Eisenman had used oddly-angled walls, making placing furniture well impossible, and putting the windows at floor level, so one would have to get on one’s knees to see outside."

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I may have linked this already, but a kchoze piece on modelitis seems relevant to the above article. Planners viewing cities and buildings from above, not from the view of pedestrians actually using them. https://urbankchoze.blogspot.ca/2015/08/point-of-view-matters-scourge-of.html