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virtualritz 11 minutes ago [-]
I have architect friends. They can't draw, they can't sculpt, they have no clue about art history. Or color theory, if you want to go that far. Usually golden ratio/Fibonacci is kinda where it ends. One of them is a professor of architecture, no less.
That said, I'm sure there are architects today for which some or all of this is not true.
Most of the above are subjects an architect student would have had to learn about and demonstrate profienciency in, to earn their degree, a 100 years ago.
I'm sure the change in architecture's priorities played a role in this too. Industrial materials, construction efficiency. The need to mass produce housing, costs and new social ideals, yadayadayada.
And ofc the modernist rejection of any ornament; even that which is there historically, on existing architecture.
My hope is that in a future where we 3D-print buildings or construct them with robots we will see a renaissance of non-functional[1] beauty/sculpture/texture/color in architecture because the cost difference will be marginal/nonexistend.
But then, architecture is also always a mirror of the period. And from that pov it's not looking so great for beauty making it back any time soon.
[1] Yet functional because how can the happiness/joy of the perceiver of architecture be removed from what should count as functional, in architecture?
nemomarx 7 minutes ago [-]
I think it's like millennial grey. Not only is it more expensive to add ornamentation, it also hurts resale and repurposing of buildings. Ideally you want mostly identical boxes where you could change the sign to make it a church, a McDonalds, a clothing store, etc every few years.
Or that seems like the goal of commercial builders now, right?
Incipient 3 minutes ago [-]
I just wanted to say thank you for posting this. It was a wonderful break from the norm, and I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments. I haven't enjoyed anything here or in general in a while.
Thank you!
recursivedoubts 23 minutes ago [-]
Read from bauhaus to our house, by tom wolfe. In america we had the Arts & Crafts movement (e.g. greene & greene) as a native folk form.
It was all killed because two dynamics came together to push "the yale box": corporate america's love of cheap buildings (although the buildings are cheap to build but often nightmares to maintain and use... somebody else's problem) and the ideological purity spiraling post WW2 driven by the academic environment and the rise of abstract architectural criticism over the practical building arts.
post modernism acknowledged the failure of the yale box but, because going back to traditional building forms was unthinkable (of course), had to do ironic kitsch instead
DubiousPusher 31 seconds ago [-]
Uh, I guarantee you a 1970 ranch is a far easier building to maintain than a craftsman bungalow.
BobBagwill 28 minutes ago [-]
I think contemporary architecture is perfect:
Cheap, soulless, forgettable, replaceable metal and glass rectangular prisms filled with cheap, soulless, forgettable, replaceable workers. Form follows function!
That old architecture implied things like spirit, transcendence, community, beauty. Outmoded concepts for sure!
It is also interesting to read about the Amsterdamse School, an early 1900's style with "mass appeal" of which you can see many beautiful examples throughout the city, which were also only built thanks to strong support from the political sphere. https://architecture-history.org/schools/AMSTERDAM%20SCHOOL....
DubiousPusher 2 minutes ago [-]
Dude, it's labor. It is no coincidence that essentially every intricate form of architecture gave way to simplified forms at the exact same time that wages for trade workers were rapidly rising.
Hand placed parquet that took a master craftsman several weeks to lay disappeared. Intricate carvings upon otherwise utilitarian and common structures likewise.
Art Deco itself is a compromise with this creeping reality. Not fully modern minimalist but economically efficient in using flattened elements, prefabs and smoker accents for detailing.
When a trad person posts their diatribe online it is a simple tell. They know next to nothing about how the built world is actually created. And they don't understand how wages came to form the basis of respect for working people. The act of decrying the utilitarian transition is itself a form of disrespect via ignorance. Because what you are essentially saying is that your aesthetic preferences are more important than the time of expert laborers, whether you know it or not.
fsloth 38 minutes ago [-]
Not mentioned in the article - Helsinki has a large collection of Art Nouveau ("Jugend") buildings, though not quite matching Riga.
"Helsinki is indeed a unique city of Art Nouveau architecture on the global scale, boasting no less than 600 “Jugend” buildings – more even than in Barcelona or Brussels."
vslira 34 minutes ago [-]
I think the part of this post that is a push back at the “trad critique” doesn’t really work: at a point the author basically says that modernism has its hold due to being a (and I’m paraphrasing uncharitably here) cheap and easy shot at architectural respectability, which is not only not a defense of it, but pretty much the point of the “trad critique”
rad_val 34 minutes ago [-]
I think the answer to this question is deeply uncomfortable in 2026.
Softly put, it's discipline, focus and a sense of greater purpose, far above the monetary value of things, fame and fortune.
In other words, exactly what our current, consumer-oriented society lacks. (for better or worse)
cogman10 22 minutes ago [-]
It's not those things, it's money.
You can buy discipline, focus, and a sense of greater purpose. But it ain't cheap and few with the means to do it have the will to want it.
Consider my office. The original drafted designs for it had an airy look, full ceiling, windows connecting the rooms for added light, doors.
Every single one of those things got nixed because it meant $$$ and the people running my company didn't want to foot the bill. So instead what we ended up with is cheap carpet, no ceiling (I can see all the joists and the ductwork), and paper thin cardboard walls which you can hear discussions from across the building. But the conference room where the C Levels commonly meet is fantastically decorated.
brookst 14 minutes ago [-]
I’m curious about “you can buy discipline”. For oneself?
nemomarx 5 minutes ago [-]
You can pay an architect to be very disciplined if you find a good one. Or you can pay a personal trainer to do discipline for you, a dietician, a personal assistant to be disciplined about your time...
Gravityloss 38 minutes ago [-]
I went to Sagrada Familia and then to Mies van Der Rohe Pavilion.
The latter had a bikini fashion shoot ongoing.
Maybe something to do with it. The world and society completely transformed. Mass media, fashion, loss of religiosity, sexual liberation, globalization, social mobility...
rolisz 44 minutes ago [-]
I'm lucky to live in an Art Nouveau City :) (Oradea, Romania)
fishTastesGood 8 minutes ago [-]
Hi, I visited Oradea in 2024, the Piata Unirii was very pretty and I also loved the Fortress and the museum inside. I'm happy to hear more areas are getting renovated, many areas looked a bit run down, but I visited in October so it was cloudy and rainy. I need to visit again with better weather. I also had dinner at a restaurant with Mama in the name I think, it was delicious.
hommelix 34 minutes ago [-]
Which area/building would you recommend to see Art Nouveau in Oradea?
rolisz 32 minutes ago [-]
Casa Darvas is a nice museum, with a good coffee shop in the garden.
The Central Square (Piata Unirii) has been renovated nicely and looks very good. The old main street is still in renovation, so it's not so nice now.
toyg 33 minutes ago [-]
One thing nobody ever mentions, probably because it's not fashionable, is that all these buildings require maintenance after getting built. Maintaining a modernist block, with its flat surfaces and straight lines, is utterly trivial compared to more decorative styles - where you have to constantly fight pigeons and the elements to not appear derelict. Also, it is typically complicated to fix decorative pieces when they break, as they often do.
I do understand and share the view that the current mainstream is utterly boring, but I also acknowledge the (somewhat) irresistible forces that shape it: money, time, effort. And I don't believe AI can do anything to counter them in a significant manner, sadly.
hmokiguess 1 hours ago [-]
Unrelated but while scrolling, when I scrolled up, the asterisk thingy appeared on the top right corner and I thought it was a spider or some glitch and had a mini freakout before realizing it was the actual branding
teddyh 50 minutes ago [-]
Like those paper cutouts of lizards that people put on walls in order to fascinate cats.
hmokiguess 44 minutes ago [-]
Thank you for this idea, my cats are in for a treat today.
ctolsen 51 minutes ago [-]
Sagrada Família is an amazing building. Going inside it is an awesome experience.
But it is a _lot_. Putting aside the artistic skill and construction cost of it, I'm glad I don't live in a city where everything is like that. I feel like it'd be overstimulating much like an analog version of the Las Vegas strip.
weatherlight 11 minutes ago [-]
I live in Barcelona, it's a very pleasant city (if you can aford to live here), The city has almost 2000 years of history and architecture. It's inhabitants left its mark. Eixample (the Extension) was planned kinda all at once by Cerda and thats why theres an over representation of specific styles of architecture, and why Eixample feels a bit like an open air museum.
If you go to the "Gothic quarter" or to Gracia you won't see much "Art nouveau."
Its a very varied city.
I live in a building in the "Modernisme" style and its lovely.
loloquwowndueo 34 minutes ago [-]
Did you visit other Gaudí buildings? La pedrera is open for visiting and a very nice apartment building. I wouldn’t mind a city where most buildings are like that.
Sagrada Família is very purposefully a total exaggeration but so are most large churches when viewed as part of their surrounding context. They’re designed to stand out.
rad_val 43 minutes ago [-]
The level of detail can vary while keeping the idea intact. You wouldn't be more overwhelmed than when you walk down on any european old city centers.
Filligree 46 minutes ago [-]
It’s no different from living in a beautiful natural landscape. I can tell you from experience that no, you get used to it.
It would not be a lot. It would fade into the background, except that any time you want to see beauty you just have to look up and focus.
luqtas 39 minutes ago [-]
nature has proven calming effects on humans... bird sings, even plants on the roof of an urban area can have positive effects just because of the vision
i highly doubt a christian church has the same effect. everytime i see a church i think about atrocities commited by the religion and alienation
skinfaxi 37 minutes ago [-]
> i highly doubt a christian church has the same effect. everytime i see a church i think about atrocities commited by the religion and alienation
Maybe not the exact same effect as nature but it is indeed calming to me at least. Stepping into a cathedral, or masjid, or temple and the noise of the world falls away (and I'm not even religious). I'm sure I'm not the only one.
luqtas 28 minutes ago [-]
i'm also not religious and having lived in a remote place for more than a year, i lost count of the amount of times i sat at the grass in a completely meditative state by starring at clouds, mountains and sunsets
tocs3 32 minutes ago [-]
everytime i see a church i think about atrocities commited
Not to downplay atrocities committed in the name of Christianity but I am pretty sure every large ideology has its share of of atrocities.
luqtas 22 minutes ago [-]
yes but when you have it talking basically exclusively about "love", it's much harder to swallow
That said, I'm sure there are architects today for which some or all of this is not true.
Most of the above are subjects an architect student would have had to learn about and demonstrate profienciency in, to earn their degree, a 100 years ago.
I'm sure the change in architecture's priorities played a role in this too. Industrial materials, construction efficiency. The need to mass produce housing, costs and new social ideals, yadayadayada.
And ofc the modernist rejection of any ornament; even that which is there historically, on existing architecture.
My hope is that in a future where we 3D-print buildings or construct them with robots we will see a renaissance of non-functional[1] beauty/sculpture/texture/color in architecture because the cost difference will be marginal/nonexistend.
But then, architecture is also always a mirror of the period. And from that pov it's not looking so great for beauty making it back any time soon.
[1] Yet functional because how can the happiness/joy of the perceiver of architecture be removed from what should count as functional, in architecture?
Or that seems like the goal of commercial builders now, right?
Thank you!
It was all killed because two dynamics came together to push "the yale box": corporate america's love of cheap buildings (although the buildings are cheap to build but often nightmares to maintain and use... somebody else's problem) and the ideological purity spiraling post WW2 driven by the academic environment and the rise of abstract architectural criticism over the practical building arts.
post modernism acknowledged the failure of the yale box but, because going back to traditional building forms was unthinkable (of course), had to do ironic kitsch instead
Cheap, soulless, forgettable, replaceable metal and glass rectangular prisms filled with cheap, soulless, forgettable, replaceable workers. Form follows function!
That old architecture implied things like spirit, transcendence, community, beauty. Outmoded concepts for sure!
https://architizer.com/projects/tiktok/
It is also interesting to read about the Amsterdamse School, an early 1900's style with "mass appeal" of which you can see many beautiful examples throughout the city, which were also only built thanks to strong support from the political sphere. https://architecture-history.org/schools/AMSTERDAM%20SCHOOL....
Hand placed parquet that took a master craftsman several weeks to lay disappeared. Intricate carvings upon otherwise utilitarian and common structures likewise.
Art Deco itself is a compromise with this creeping reality. Not fully modern minimalist but economically efficient in using flattened elements, prefabs and smoker accents for detailing.
When a trad person posts their diatribe online it is a simple tell. They know next to nothing about how the built world is actually created. And they don't understand how wages came to form the basis of respect for working people. The act of decrying the utilitarian transition is itself a form of disrespect via ignorance. Because what you are essentially saying is that your aesthetic preferences are more important than the time of expert laborers, whether you know it or not.
https://www.myhelsinki.fi/visit/helsinki-art-nouveau-archite...
"Helsinki is indeed a unique city of Art Nouveau architecture on the global scale, boasting no less than 600 “Jugend” buildings – more even than in Barcelona or Brussels."
Softly put, it's discipline, focus and a sense of greater purpose, far above the monetary value of things, fame and fortune.
In other words, exactly what our current, consumer-oriented society lacks. (for better or worse)
You can buy discipline, focus, and a sense of greater purpose. But it ain't cheap and few with the means to do it have the will to want it.
Consider my office. The original drafted designs for it had an airy look, full ceiling, windows connecting the rooms for added light, doors.
Every single one of those things got nixed because it meant $$$ and the people running my company didn't want to foot the bill. So instead what we ended up with is cheap carpet, no ceiling (I can see all the joists and the ductwork), and paper thin cardboard walls which you can hear discussions from across the building. But the conference room where the C Levels commonly meet is fantastically decorated.
The latter had a bikini fashion shoot ongoing.
Maybe something to do with it. The world and society completely transformed. Mass media, fashion, loss of religiosity, sexual liberation, globalization, social mobility...
The Central Square (Piata Unirii) has been renovated nicely and looks very good. The old main street is still in renovation, so it's not so nice now.
I do understand and share the view that the current mainstream is utterly boring, but I also acknowledge the (somewhat) irresistible forces that shape it: money, time, effort. And I don't believe AI can do anything to counter them in a significant manner, sadly.
But it is a _lot_. Putting aside the artistic skill and construction cost of it, I'm glad I don't live in a city where everything is like that. I feel like it'd be overstimulating much like an analog version of the Las Vegas strip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfN517mqhC8 (Absolutely worth watching if you want to know why Barcelona was planned the way it was.)
If you go to the "Gothic quarter" or to Gracia you won't see much "Art nouveau."
Its a very varied city. I live in a building in the "Modernisme" style and its lovely.
Sagrada Família is very purposefully a total exaggeration but so are most large churches when viewed as part of their surrounding context. They’re designed to stand out.
It would not be a lot. It would fade into the background, except that any time you want to see beauty you just have to look up and focus.
i highly doubt a christian church has the same effect. everytime i see a church i think about atrocities commited by the religion and alienation
Maybe not the exact same effect as nature but it is indeed calming to me at least. Stepping into a cathedral, or masjid, or temple and the noise of the world falls away (and I'm not even religious). I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Not to downplay atrocities committed in the name of Christianity but I am pretty sure every large ideology has its share of of atrocities.