Monday, 22 February 2010

Architecture alert

James Lileks posted this horror on his site with this description:
This has all the hallmarks of modern European architecture: aloof when not openly hostile, overscaled, cartoony, something you would see in the margins of a fever dream.
I bow to no one in my admiration of Mr Lileks, but "not openly hostile"? It would have to have machine-gun ports every twenty feet and Orcs stationed on the roof to be any more hostile! The thing is covered with spikes, for heaven's sake!

5 comments:

Sergej said...

I think that big building is ingesting the small building. It should be careful, or it will drop the giant rainbow-prism on the roof.

Mr. Lileks lives in Minneapolis, where people are polite, and do not speak too loudly. If he were from a more excitable part of the country, I'm sure he'd be jumping up and down and grabbing his head at the sight of this ugly thing. Or huddled in a corner, his arms around his knees, sobbing quietly.

Ironmistress said...

The problem with Modernist architecture is that it does not scale up.

What looks nice and beautiful in small cases and is functional in small units - such as single family houses - simply does not scale up.

The results are usually either boring, banal, brutal or outright hostile. "Functionalism Style" is another oxymoron - the results are unstylish and dysfuncional.

Of course, in the eyes of the steelers the blast furnaces are beautiful...

Neil Russell said...

Looks like it's going to be made out of acoustic material. Maybe the idea is to keep the neighborhood quiet.
Or it's just what it looks like; an ugly mish mash of pointy bits.

Anonymous said...

Do the architects ever live in their creations ? Micen90

Ironmistress said...

Anonymous: Yes, but only if they are small enough - that is, single family houses.