5 Reasons the Modern World Is so Ugly

A distinguishing feature of much of the modern man-made world is that it is, first and foremost, very ugly: disappointing modern architecture abounds. We've almost ceased to notice how awful a lot of it is and forgotten how much better we can do. Here are five central reasons why so many buildings have gone wrong and an urgent blueprint for how to build the more beautiful world we deserve.
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“One of the great generalisations we can make about the modern world is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, an ugly world. If we were to show an ancestor from 250 years ago around our cities and suburbs, they would be amazed at our technology, impressed by our wealth, stunned by our medical advances - and shocked and disbelieving at the horrors we had managed to build. Societies that are, in most respects, hugely more advanced than those of the past have managed to construct urban environments more dispiriting, chaotic and distasteful than anything humanity has ever known…”
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[@Wokenomics_PhD]

I noticed this when I was still in elementary school. Schools looked like prisons. A place where creativity goes to die.

[@chasegriffin5205]

Understatement of the year 😓😢🙄💯

[@Autism_Forever]

I went to decorate my school. I was punished for it and called a vandal. IMHO, vandals were those who designed and erected this obnoxious piece of concrete.

[@chasegriffin5205]

@@Autism_Forever that doesn't surprise me at all that you got punishment for trying to be creative 😓😓 I'm telling you, schools are literally built and designed to be like prisons, colorless, unimaginative, depressing, and anytime you do the opposite of those things you get the book thrown right at your face and brought down for trying to be a positive influence in an otherwise bleak place

[@ChibiGeeBee]

that is exactly what it is.

[@amirfarahbakhsh2960]

what happened is that we architects betrayed the trust of society and just looked at buildings as buildings and nothing more. it is all our fault. architecture has lost it's Duties and values in a tornado of useless modern arguments and ideas.

[@koshisunuwarrai]

Why choose between beauty and function ? When we can have both.

[@Ladyblue7620]

@@theglockykuzdra1006 yes plz

[@Masterhitman935]

Money is why we can’t have nice thing, isn’t that ironic.

[@bhoomikachaudhari1784]

@Sanningen good point

[@feree1720]

Cost, Lol

[@Masterhitman935]

Sanningen ,look up TVM( Time value of money) its a simple as would you want a $100 now or a year from now, most likely a vast majority like it now. As we have a innate sense of value but economic mechanisms of inflation have a “real” ( not just nominal) effect on value of currency. By mere supply and demand. Additional money can loss value by leaving in saving, this is happening in japan for about the better part of two decades. Moreover as a society we agree that education is a important part for a society to maintain high productivity and competitiveness in the global market. And finally works does not equal happiness nor equal return in money, especially in the United States where propatest (bad spelling) work value is instill since its foundation.

[@gildone84]

"We have democratized comfort, but made beauty appallingly exclusive". An outstanding statement.

[@abcd123906]

Was going to post this same comment but saw you beat me to it!

[@alistairkirk3264]

Yep that's where I paused and subscribed.

[@co7013]

Well to be honest, I find a lot of 'exclusive architecture appallingly ugly and tasteless. I'd rather look at some bland appartement buildings form the 50's or 60's.

[@thecorruptversion]

@@co7013 yeah but in order to appear as a wanna be intellectual, you have to say that everything modern is ugly

[@knightdtd]

After a few years of the biggest transfer of wealth in history the comfort is quickly going away for a lot of people though.

[@justinael]

I agree so much. I thought I was in minority. Modern ugliness tires me.

[@campkira]

it just cheap to build... easy to design..old build had endless time to build and never mean to made profit..

[@adamsmith3413]

The Trump administration is reinvigorating the classical movement for government buildings in DC. Yeah!

[@deeznoots6241]

Lmao people 3000 years ago were complaining the exact same thing as you are now. Literally just pointless nostalgia.

[@markbondurant6434]

What you don't like is the boxy period. What you don't like is new fresh out of the box. What you want is individuality and variance.

[@ThatBalkanGuy.]

@@deeznoots6241 mo

[@Firenze1924]

In the late 80’s My high school Spanish teacher told us that it was a shame that schools are built like industrial warehouses or prisons, but that we were supposed to think creatively within those walls. She remarked that if we really wanted to change education and the state of the world, schools should be built like cathedrals, with rib vaults and stained glass. Now as a high school teacher I hold similar discussions with my own students. Thanks for addressing this School of Life! Elegantly stated!!

[@kaiserpuppydog7174]

In my area , you can tell the schools from the prisons only by the absence of barbed wire on the fences.

[@Firenze1924]

Kaiser Puppydog 😢😢😢

[@isaackmusic]

You had an amazing teacher Rob! And as a result, you too have become a great teacher. Chances are you are the only one to many of your pupils. The school and the teacher must feel mysterious. Discipline should not feel forced but enjoyed. This spurs the young mind to want to learn more willingly. The future is in your hands Pal, teach them!

[@horace6851]

I agree. Just imagine how Harry Potter stories would feel if Hogwarts was a warehouse school. Architecture matters and it's a shame we forgot that.

[@Komorebidreams]

I completely agree. As an art teacher, I travel through 5 schools per week. The architecture of each profoundly influences the psyche.

[@Tom_Quixote]

Everybody loves to visit old towns with old style buildings, but nobody wants to build more of them. I wish they did. But oh well, there's always alcohol.

[@acmulhern]

You'd be surprised :)

[@pilgrim1978]

But every capitalist wants to have their cake and eat it.

[@gmailbox9084]

Many architects do want to include more aesthetically pleasing features in large developments, but are prevented from doing so by quantity surveyors. Not just on the grounds of expense, but also because decorative elements are difficult for them to cost.

[@FlyxPat]

They are expensive. That’s the root cause of most problems - money (or the lack of it), or, the inevitable success of the cheapest product.

[@wolfgangkranek376]

The argument is a bit unfair. There a a lot of beautiful and practical contemporary buildings. The problems begin when politicians and bureaucrats with to much public money meet a so called star architect without any sense for human needs and no knowledge of technical practicality. Where I live there is a former public school building, planned by such an architect. Useless and empty for many years now because the glass facade is not safe any more and beyond acceptable maintenance. And the building is also ugly and uninspired.

[@QuestionEverythingButWHY]

“Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.” - Mignon McLaughlin

[@ChrisPollitt]

Great quote!

[@Galdring]

Your username is a little ironic, considering it was Apple's slogan. Adopting one of the world's biggest corporations' slogan isn't thinking differently, is it? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different

[@rishaa682]

not all, indigenous cultures value those that don't fit in they are seen as special. eg look into shamanism

[@politics9811]

This is so true as I sit here and watch the service remembering and celebrating the life of the late civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis

[@ddodjg]

@@politics9811 whilst anyone who steps out of the social justice world view is shunned from society.

[@Beastnar]

This is an inherent problem throughout the whole country of Norway nowadays. Large and ugly modern apartment buildings with a complete lack of adaptation to existing architecture, are massively being built right into the seafront with extraordinary views, meanwhile they're blocking the views for older and smaller buildings, and destroying beautiful and traditional Norwegian townscapes. Such a tragedy for our country. Thank you for this video, it is very important!

[@samg1879]

Scarily enough, this is why I searched up for this video. I was on Google Maps street view looking around Norway because I'd love to go there one day, and noticed how bland it looked, contrary to what I imagined it looked like.

[@philtimedavidfpw]

This is why Burnham forbade the development of Chicago's Lakeshore. Although Chicago still has cookie cutter apartment buildings, Chicago at least can claim an unadulterated view of the lakefront. And at least there's a statue both by Picasso and Calder to brighten up the urban atmosphere.

[@dejanklincov5237]

Idea of modernity was good material and proportion. Is wanish. Now boring is arhitect ur . Do right !!! Buti . DK

[@draug7966]

Similar in Sweden. Maybe not so much in the cities, but i hate it when almost every new house they build in the countryside looks like either some kind of mausoleum or a shoebox with windows. It doesn't fit together at all with the classic little red houses.

[@BamberdittoPingpong]

Yeah it really is a problem here. They have ruined the area where we have a cabin by building enormous cubes that take up so much space. A fucking disgrace.

[@johncox2284]

We had an architecture student living next to us a year ago. I asked him how much training he gets in aesthetics, to which he replied that he received none. Just build glass boxes and call it good. I watched them destroy countless examples of beautiful homes and buildings in my home town in the 60s and replace them with freeways, parking lots and glass boxes.

[@exchangAscribe]

yup that was my major. they dont teach that aesthetics or form. they teach all that theyre special and individual even though everyone does the same sh*t. they teach abstraction and that 'your imagination holds no bounds'. literally could make a freaking parallelogram and theyd congratulate you.

[@claudi010778]

It's not just the buildings that are "ugly" , but society as a whole, how people seem to think and their attitudes towards everything.

[@TheSapphireLeo]

Gr**med by the very same colonizers, no less. This is just one method of their tourtures.

[@bryanutility9609]

The way people dress

[@JTNYLI]

...XD haaaaha!! ... Didn't see that one coming "we are ugly" ...Very Ugly!

[@voiceofreason2691]

What country do you Iive in?

[@happymess3219]

😐 thank you. agreed. 100% agreed.

[@WisdomWealth77]

Our children will one day lead the world, but it is our responsibility to show them that this world can be a beautiful place to live...

[@lifeisagameofknowingyourro6327]

Nonsense, the world is fucked let's just balanced out everything and it will be k.

[@mariaradulovic3203]

Only if u lie to them.

[@TheDarkOne9942]

What children?

[@pseudorealityisreal]

What makes you sure that children of the future would do that? Are they special? We, our parents, our grandparents before us and so on couldn't do this.

[@chaosdweller]

Stop!being! cerebral! U wanna go and get your self teased? What's wrong with u?

[@ericmaher4756]

There is beautiful architecture of every type, but I think one of the big things we’ve lost is local harmony and relatability, which is ever more irrelevant in an age of individuality.

[@GierlangBhaktiPutra]

The way we over-exploit our nature has brought us at this point. That's how we lose our harmony with local surroundings.

[@victorkreig6089]

Nah there are definitley ugly designs, several entire design schools of architecture are outright disgusting and should be used as swear words by children

[@alexv5349]

As a French and european in general i feel lucky because even if there are ugly buildings in our countries most of the landscape and the cities are beautiful and that’s something that often shocked me specially when i went to america or asia. You feel like you are in a protected paradise and the rest of the world has become a huge garbage of ugly cubic towers. I’ve also noticed that i’ve the reversed tourist syndrom, i visit a city in america and when i come back i’m amazed by how beautiful my place is because i get used to the american or asian standard. I’ve never understood why people accepted in rich countries to create so much ugliness

[@alexv5349]

The worst was japan, like i felt dizzy by the ugliness of the cities i think i’ve never seen so much ugliness in my life before. I know french people complain about dirtiness of our cities compared with japan but it’s 100% true, the central part of tokyo looks like the worst poorest parts of the ugliest suburbs in france except that it’s rich and clean. I’m not nationalist at all and japan has loads of things france or west european countries don’t have but the ugliness of their cities is something that really shocked me. Paris is dirty, is whatever you want it to be but any average looking building in Paris would be, by far, considered as a national monument because of its beauty in japan. That’s not normal ! Specially when you know that ancient japanese cities were beautiful, this country has lost everything of its architectural past

[@Liusila]

I have the same reaction when I return to London - in fact it makes it hard to think of where you’d like to travel (without spending too much money), because we’re already in one of the prettiest and most interesting cities in the world.

[@justjosh711]

That was well said, and I envy you for being able to go back home to beautiful, historic architecture. As an American it’s so tiresome seeing shopping plazas and parking garages all over the place here. We still have some fine architecture in historic towns and districts within some of our cities though. Let’s hope they aren’t replaced by ugly modern structures.

[@HawkK]

“Beauty will save the world” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[@factoryman28]

Damn straight.

[@silkie09]

Hawk Who determines what is beauty?

[@divinefeminine8639]

Nah

[@isaackmusic]

@@dhaval1489 hahaha so at the height of emotion

[@isaackmusic]

@@silkie09 Beautiful/ugly feels intuitive and largely personal. There is no clear way to decide how we humans arrive at our personal conclusions that something is pleasant to experience or uncomfortable. The emotion that it stirs either positively or negatively, is the only conclusion we have. A lot of the time, humans prefer to go online to check reviews of a series for example to decide if they should like it or not - which is a shame really

[@MastaChafa]

"Brutal boxes" is a very accurate description of most modern buildings.

[@georgew.douche26yearsago65]

There's even an architecture style named 'brutalism'.

[@sophiaangelini4368]

Exactly.

[@bluebaconjake405]

George W. Douche • 26 years ago and that word came from the french word for concrete which is “beton brute”. Its not because its brutal, its the material choice and function.

[@LauraLin_]

I don't think they are that ugly, surely because I see them everyday and they are so simple. I think that it's almost impossible for simple things to be "ugly"

[@shrimpsoup5753]

No doupt

[@PtolemyXVII]

I've lived in and seen many places around the world and the United States, India, South Korea and Vietnam have the worst kind of architecture. In the United States, every city is a depressing strip mall with parking lots, interspersed by "gated" communities with McMansions with no aesthetic value. In India, there is just so many people living in abject poverty with no modern conveniences within dilapidated buildings, you have to wonder why their govt does not care to reform their structural integrity. In South Korea, it is one high tower concrete apartment building cheaply erected, one after another interspersed with dilapidated villages in which the downtown areas are all crammed together with neon lights and cars parked every which way and Vietnam is similar, except they at least have some nice modernised living spaces. Nations that do not invest in architecture and urban planning are also those that often neglect their people and cut funding for social programmes.

[@MechanicWolf85]

Couldn't have said this any better

[@Irigoyen4]

In São Paulo the cityscape is an almost never ending dystopian forest of apartment buildings. Eastern Europe has cities with identical apartment buildings with identical apartments in identical blocks that go on and on and on. These are the bee hives that accurately represent the lives of the many who support the few.

[@bhoomikachaudhari1784]

Architecture needs to be given importance. People think an architect just like a Mason or drafting man. Architects study 5 rigorous years!

[@28pbtkh23]

Bhoomika Chaudhari - they study five years but never understand beauty!

[@benpaul2809]

Which part of india?

[@ITSTAKING]

Oh well I thought this was going to be about social media.

[@JATherapist911]

Me too 😂

[@JATherapist911]

Although the initial image portrays stocks. 🧐

[@zackcascio5652]

In a way I don’t mind

[@nulnwiss2720]

Si

[@klemensvonmetternich4442]

Guillem Delclòs makes sense that you don’t considering a significant amount of modernist architecture was funded by both socialist and totalitarian regimes

[@iankeith763]

How many times have I said exactly this? Totally agree, the world now is an ugly place.

[@andrewthomas695]

I thought it was just me that felt this way.

[@eyon7630]

Me too, I feel so irritated when I see ugly buildings!

[@limerence_couture]

Me too... I thought the architecture is "inhumain" in a way. We long for connexion and a sense of community as a human being and the architecture isn't helping

[@harrynac6017]

Really? I hear it a lot.

[@harrynac6017]

I typed in google "Why is modern architecture", the supplemented. - so simple - so bland - important - so boring - bad - soulless

[@Alien42x]

.

[@GeraldDeBelen]

Alternative Title: "5 Reasons the Modern BUILDINGS Are Ugly"

[@anonb4632]

Not just buildings, unfortunately.

[@dillonjohnlane]

Depending on where you live, the physical environment might be almost entirely buildings (a large part of the problem as well). It's a perfectly reasonable title.

[@manuelbatista6944]

part agree, part not. El mundo moderno sigue lineamientos similares, lógicas del desabastecimiento de la belleza.

[@omarsabir1210]

@@guidomucci7407 it depends on what you seek. There are a lot of modern artists and musicians that are great. Stop with the "I was born in the wrong generation" mindset.

[@maikelvoors9348]

Excellent suggestion

[@AdlerMow]

That's why I really love movies and games with beautiful landscapes and charming character and location designs! We are starving for beauty and nature. Just get a kids book featuring old British countryside: Its depressing how we lack that kind of beauty nowadays.

[@alistairkirk3264]

Hi, I'm a Brit; we have many problems as a nation these days, but we do still have lots of really gorgeous countryside: please come and enjoy it some time!

[@Liusila]

@@alistairkirk3264 It’s all private land though - either fenced off completely or it’s a plain farming field that you can climb a fence to get into. I could recommend Eastern Europe for proper simple nature - forests, fields, and countryside.

[@alistairkirk3264]

@@Liusila That's true, but we have a very very extensive and jealously defended network of public footpaths, and national parks, so in all the most scenic parts of the UK there are very good access options for enjoying the countryside even though the land is almost all farmed privately. Eastern Europe is definitely on my list though! (I'll be in Slovenia this summer actually.)

[@visjules]

yeah there's a reason ghibli films are so popular

[@domenicogrimaldi591]

The other day I was working at a site in a part of the city I've never been in. I saw a large, drab, dark grey building with tall fencing surrounding it, and very thin windows sparsely dotted about the structure. Assuming it was a prison, I turned to my partner and said "It's strange they'd put a prison so close to a residential neighborhood"...she then told me it was a elementary school lol.

[@ananya.a04]

Damn, I feel bad for those kids...I'd never go to that school myself

[@isaackellogg3493]

One of the late 19th century educational reformers actually wanted to paint the school windows black so children would not be distracted from their studies by what they could see out the windows.

[@stevenscott2136]

The main point of public school was to crush children's spirit so they'd be easier to train into factory drones. So the giant black monolith of a schoolhouse is right on target.

[@bobbieblue1885]

School is a prison in a way...

[@maegalroammis6020]

why the architects are so lazey nowadays

[@levelupLC]

Growing up in Poland I was thinking that this XX century brutalism in architecture was sometimes monumental and great... Then I've visited Vienna for the first time :)

[@danika9448]

Rudolph Steiner said that your home becomes an extension of your body. He proposed soft warm tones and more curved lines, saying that the human system - both physical and energetic - would feel more at home and harmonious in such an environment. That makes total sense to me.

[@tneprescintr]

Sorry, but the first part of this video is a gross misrepresentation of modern approach to aesthetics. Modernists were never against the idea of 'beauty' they were against the use of additions they saw as gratuitous ornamentation. The mantra "form follows function" was not a an attack on aesthetics, but a strive to rationalise form and optimise resources in a crisis-ridden Europe. And the "ugliness" that haunts post-modern architecture is merely a lack of care from building companies and architects that missed the point of clean design or were simply unaware of it. Proof of this is the work of Mies van der Rohe, which, although modern to the last detail, is extremely elegant and harmonious. I suggest googling Stephan Sagmeister's lecture on beauty, where he goes over (more successfully IMO) a few things this video mentions.

[@silvasilvasilva]

I'm glad someone seems to understand how off this channel's approach to aesthetics is.

[@TosiakiS]

This video doesn't seem to criticize modernism per se but rather those "architects that missed the point of clean design" that modernism spawned. Every good idea can have unintended consequences because of others misinterpreting what it means.

[@bernardtapie1092]

In art , the contemporary art reject the beauty for the concept, so i think the architecture got the same kind of evolution. But i think saving money is the first reason of many ugly buildings

[@Danielwoesthoff1]

exactly, there are so many great architects after the 1900’s Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Alto, Marcel Breuer, Frank Loyd Wright. They all designed beautiful modern architecture that wasn’t over pretentious and focused on the very essence of a building.

[@chevon5707]

Ale SC you won’t get the clicks with that line of logic...

[@makotoyuki345]

So basically: “Art was a priority, but Functionality and Money, Money, Money ho ho ho!”

[@Alien42x]

.

[@tiagotakuceoofredacted8802]

Hee ho

[@Jobe-13]

Hee hee hee ho ho ho ho ho ho!

[@pablocous1312]

Capitalism at its finest

[@isaackmusic]

@@dhaval1489 There is literally no rush towards the omega point. Its the main idea of calculus for example, the limit. The limit is not the point but what happens as we approach the limit. Deciding that nukes is worth spending on instead of great artisans from around our planet doing the great work is interesting.

[@lorenzsanjuan]

“Why the modern world is so ugly?” Le Corbusier - Let me introduce myself

[@luvsuneja]

I don’t mind Chandigarh though. It’s pleasantly surprising to find such a city in India.

[@ivandafoe5451]

His modern style buildings and cityscape plans were indeed mostly ugly, but he was also able to create a beautiful masterwork...Colline Notre Dame du Haut.

[@ivandafoe5451]

@Roger Dodger I like it, especially the interior. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" n'est-ce pas?

[@Forestgravy90]

That guy is responsible for a lot of awfulness

[@chewycenter7690]

Oh, the heartache. I love his graphic work, but as actual buildings...sigh.

[@y2kmedia118]

Everytime I bring up that the 21st century is ugly to people they are so astonished by my statement that they become aggressive and defensive as if i had insulted their own craftsmanship. I'm glad im not the only one who noticed the ugliness of the modern world.

[@alvinlajara2337]

"We have democratised comfort but we have made beauty appallingly exclusive." Very true indeed.

[@dcarbs2979]

Many 1960s/70s Brutalist buildings aren't as functional as the 1910 futurist would have thought. Shopping centres, blocks of flats and car parks within a single lifetime have become outdated and obsolete for their towns. My town has just removed a 1960s car park, and a barely used 1970s shopping centre while several 18th / 19th century churches have been repurposed as town halls, bars or music venues. The older buildings seem to adapt better, as well as being prettier!

[@klaushaunstrupchristensen7252]

My personal pet theory is that buildings are growing to big. If building plots were made smaller we would see so much more variety at glance. Nothing is worse than looking down a street with the same building vanishes into the distance. It drains all energy from the body and one feels small and vulnerable. Standing on a street with many small different buildings makes an interesting cozy and uplifting environment at a human scale. And these small buildings on their small plots doesn’t have to be architectural masterpieces, humble honest buildings will do nicely. For me variety is a must. Oh and then I forgot one thing, there should be substantially mor trees in our cities. We connect instinctively with vegetation. The green colours and shade keeps us happy. It should almost be a human right that we all shall be able to see at least one tree from our apartment or house.

[@ACGreyhound04]

My (private Catholic) high school and undergrad campuses were built primarily in the neoclassical style, and my graduate university is noted for its soaring Gothic buildings. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that students in all of these schools tend to be well-behaved and do well academically.

[@thedeodar]

London's asymmetrical skyline is a SHARD to the EYE. A 'walking talking' nightmare. Aren't we in a pickle (or gherkin)! Most modern cities for that matter. I have been lamenting about it and this video is so rational - I feel seen and understood. Thank you for this video

[@enzoma7253]

building ugly buildings should be seen as a crime towards humanity.

[@apparently_sonam]

add it to the list of all the other crimes humans created in their path to greed and grandiosity. Selfish culture.

[@BamberdittoPingpong]

It really should. People have no idea how much nice architecture can affect your mental wellbeing and happiness. Architects have a big power trip in hand and they are detached from public preference. They shouldn’t be allowed to have that power trip in how the world looks, because we all know how architecture schools feels towards nice buildings.

[@andreipop5805]

Lol I'm just visiting Bucharest and was wondering how is it that the 19th- early 20th century were so amazing and how is it that now evwrything seems so dull. You mind-readers.

[@isaackmusic]

hehe synchronicity right there

[@deeznoots6241]

Because all the gross old buildings were demolished, you are judging the past at its best and the current at its worst.

[@rossevanricamara4169]

@@deeznoots6241 All of those beautiful are similar to each other my dude. There are no "best" ones if uniformity was prioritized more than uniqueness. If architecture now is not as bad as it was before, there wouldn't be any tourists flocking the cities with old architecture.

[@LokiBeckonswow]

beautiful architecture also has a lot of points and symmetries that are emotionally relaxing for a human animal. the sparse modern buildings are barren and harder to connect to because they're just so plain.

[@godofbiscuitssf]

Symmetries and points don't required extraneous decoration, though. Right?

[@hellucination9905]

Details are essential!

[@godofbiscuitssf]

@@hellucination9905 but not self-important.

[@Komorebidreams]

I wish this man would have been my art history professor. Not only does he make art intriguing but he also has a voice that is mellifluous and lovely to listen to.

[@Irigoyen4]

How about a video on why society is so ugly due to greed and the exploitation of people?

[@omarsabir1210]

Capitalism

[@buttersurge8047]

Communism

[@Irigoyen4]

Omar Sabir how about human nature?

[@Irigoyen4]

Will Wow how about human nature?

[@BenjaminHernandez23]

There are many views on human nature

[@jpcchanel7002]

In Lisbon you know you are out of the historical center when your eyes begin to hurt and your soul to cry.

[@Ellie.12866]

JPC chanel - I live in a small town in Ontario Canada and my soul cries when I see pictures of European architecture.

[@jpcchanel7002]

@@doktorvfx the fancy modern part is good but its 1%, the rest...

[@scottblack7182]

That was a good one ❤

[@renatanovato9460]

❤️

[@floydlechner2445]

I understand you good. When you in berlin and walk from "u stadtmitte" down the leipziger street along the soviet living blocks and nazi-architecture styled shopping malls and end up Potsdamer Platz you want to to commit suicide for what architecture has become and that without pointless enemy bombing those whole street would look like the area were you stepped out of the metro. I will never forgive the british for this crime against my astetic sense.

[@dillonjohnlane]

Glad to see a pointed critique at the joke that modernity and post-modernism has become in western culture. Its end results are absolutely second-rate and shameful, and then we wonder why apathy, depression, and suicide are rampant; the modern spirit quickly followed suit in shallowness and ugliness. Great video.

[@Grgrqr]

Yes, because nice buildings prevent suicides

[@dillonjohnlane]

@@Grgrqr beauty is one of the things that makes life worth living, friend. love/connection is another, but that's difficult to have when you're busy making snide, cynical comments.

[@Grgrqr]

@@dillonjohnlane and you haven’t considered that some people find these modern buildings good looking?

[@dillonjohnlane]

@@Grgrqr Switched arguments pretty quick there, eh? I never said no modern buildings are good looking. But, well, yes I have considered it. I mean, that is the most generic, boilerplate argument for relativism there is (you can't say it's good/bad, right/wrong, better/worse etc, because it's all relative, so someone might disagree). I can see you've considered it too, but I doubt you've thought that argument through to it's conclusion, because you'd find it out it doesn't work, not for actually living anyway. Have you considered you could probably also find someone who thinks a standard prison is good looking? Point is, they're not built to be beautiful in the first place, the only point of the building is function, and personally, I think beauty is a value worth striving for, I think it's worth prioritizing. There's a reason people vacation to Barcelona, Budapest, Amsterdam etc. Beauty was prioritized, and we are losing that in the modern world, that's my point.

[@Grgrqr]

@@dillonjohnlane have you noticed that all of those places are associated with a romanticized antiquity? There is new iron and grey buildings out there that are made for art, just because it’s old doesn’t mean its automatically better.

[@amirfarahbakhsh2960]

i just realized that after4-5 years of subscription i have never seen poor quality content from this channel. i hope this only changes for the better since we need channels like this. btw, this matter was super important for me as a mutual concern, they made me an architect who started to doubt his whole teachings and knowledge of the craft and grew bitter with the world of architecture, the modernists betrayed humanity and served nothing even though they had access to all the psychological research data that they wanted to know what we humans need.

[@gent8940]

I remember when Alain de Botton came to my city of Toronto and insulted it for being ugly 😆😆😆😆😆

[@chrystianaw8256]

Canada as a whole is drenched in ugliness. I'm sad that we didn't inherit more of the colonial style of architecture. Because what Canadians build is horrendous.

[@mopimoped]

The houses in the west areas of Toronto are pretty, I think. Especially around Roncesvalles, but even Queen West, the shop buildings are pretty. Next time you ride the streetcar along Queen West, turn your gaze upwards to the second floor of those shops and you'll know what I mean.

[@MsCtrain]

He did the same to my city, Brisbane Australia, and put up a photo of ipswich another city on his blog and said it was Brisbane .... Brisbane and Ipswich were then both offended. 😂

[@gent8940]

Chrystiana Romanova any colonial style is actually a sad pastiche of a bunch of styles mixed up. The true era is over. I think it’s possible to have beautiful modern architecture. Developers don’t care though just as long as maximizes profit and is ‘serviceable’ to look at

[@bike756]

I am in Toronto and can confirm that it is ugly. It's not quite the city's fault though - it's just its age. Most buildings here are new and most new buildings are ugly. I used to live in one of the largest historic districts in the US (Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati; largely circa 1880-ish) and didn't really appreciate what I had there until I saw all this new-style garbage in Toronto. Even the old here is being renovated to look new.

[@ShubhamBhushanCC]

For a true gem of brutalism, have a look at Boston city hall.

[@thecomprehensionhub4612]

oof

[@zain5496]

Just googled it. The ugliest building I have ever seen

[@digitalNegative29]

oh god what the heck was that thing

[@dhp6687]

I walked by there in person as a tourist like ten years ago. At first glance I thought it was a prison.

[@l3onerdo]

good lord

[@eduardoramirezjr4403]

Prince Charles of the U.K. argued on this same subject years ago and was severely ridiculed for his belief.

[@rdc515]

So does Roger Scruton..

[@DavoidJohnson]

The poor have always lived rough .The rich and privileged have never cared and only consider themselves.

[@anonb4632]

@@DavoidJohnson Some peasant dwellings are pretty though. Maybe not highly developed but not necessarily ugly.

[@davidcockayne3381]

@@DavoidJohnson Ah, the Monty Python theory of history. Saves actually studying, eh? kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmPGXotufc51pMk kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5XIlWihZqukg6M

[@PtolemyXVII]

David Johnson council flats in the UK would be considered luxury apartments in the US

[@alivissianos]

I love this channel, but there's so many ads now when I watch on my phone I'm tempted to stop, I had 4 double ads during this video, I know that's far less than television, but it's far more than there used to be on KZbin

[@MechanicWolf85]

I watch it on a Firefox browser, you can download some add-ons that block ads, it won't be as polished as the app but you won't have to bother with ads anymore

[@terrybatman]

Creators need money

[@earthling_parth]

That's the only real way you can support some of the best channels here on YT if you don't support them through monetary means. I keep this as a rule of thumb that if the video is long (15-20+ mins), I would watch the 2 or 3 ads (including the starting one depending on how much I love a channel like Kurzgesagt, Vsauce, Veritasium, SmarterEveryDay, Lemmino, to name a few) and then click on the end of the video and resume the video (rewatch according to YT) on mobile which clears out any remaining ads that might be present. I even click on some of the relevant ads just so that these channels earn money to support them. Similarly, I browse with Ad-block on laptop but if I truly care about a channel and value their content, I will disable the Ad-block and then watch that specific video.

[@jjhbball]

Have you read Stephen Hicks’ essay: Why Art Became Ugly?

[@nathanjohnpalaogaming4872]

Anime

[@LoveAndSnapple]

Now I want to go read it. Thanks!

[@Cinemaniac96]

"cities grew ever uglier" (picture of frankfurt) ruuuuuuuude lmao

[@acmulhern]

It's true though...

[@jogennotsuki]

True indeed. Frankfurt is abysmal.

[@cinderelly00]

it really is so ugly, sorry

[@karlik4861]

it is a ugly city

[@deeznoots6241]

Love the beauty of old new york, where horse shit littered the streets and factories made the air dirty, much better than modern new york. People need to take off their nostalgia glasses.

[@arandomfox999]

I'm of the opinion that utility is primary and that aesthetics is secondary, however I'm not of the opinion that aesthetics are of no bearing and little value. Form should not interfere with function, however it rarely does therefore it pays decently well to give it its due consideration. I hate the minimalist movement, that's not really optimally functional but rather optimally ugly. There's nothing, nothing to please you or bring you comfort. Are we not comfort creatures? We manipulate the environment to please us. If we can't even succeed at that, that's just sad. A chair should be comfortable before pretty, but a piece of molded plastic rightfully disgusts you regardless of comfort, being surrounded by ugliness isn't terribly comfortable mentally. When purpose and beauty aligns you then experience delight.

[@bernardtapie1092]

Minimalism can be relaxing

[@silversolver7809]

Well said Adrian, good comment. I disagree re minimalism, one of my favorite design quotes is: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."-Antoine de Saint-Exupery. When I'm in a cluttered place, I feel 'pressed in on'. I enjoy the emptiness of unfilled space, room to move and breathe and imagine.

[@arandomfox999]

@@silversolver7809 I think that's more to do with having had a busy day, then your brain doesn't seek anymore stimulation. Or for extroverts that spend little time in their home. Also artful isn't cluttered, if it appears that way then you're overstimulated

[@silversolver7809]

@@arandomfox999 Agreed :)

[@isaackmusic]

The real function should be warmth and inclusion. When friends/family visits your home, do you want them to feel at home or tense that they cannot touch anything or move a pillow ahaha You describe it well that molded plastic is ugly even if comfortable. As we move into a 3D printed future, we have to bring nature along as well.

[@m.j.golden4522]

“Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.” ― Anaïs Nin

[@chaosdweller]

Wow, that's actually interesting, that is if your right, which I think u are.

[@hund4440]

The bauhause school was very visionary, the nazis surpressed them and went back to tradition only. Le corbusier also was a visionary responsible for the architecture you dont like

[@chaosdweller]

@@hund4440 damn this is the second conversation I've seen tonight in a row were 2 unknown people go at each other on a personal level lol, ...surprisingly im honestly a lil jealous lol, if you can imagine that? Lol

[@ZeroDarknezz]

My 5 reasons the modern world is so ugly: - Social Media - Technology - Misinformation - People - Consumerism

[@mobeenkhan824]

ZeroDarknezz Social media and technology is not the problem. The problem is people being too reliant on them and using it too much. They are both useful tools and good entertainment. But can harm our mental health if we use them too much.

[@ZeroDarknezz]

@@mobeenkhan824 Nah they're both a problem cuz they get into our lives so much to the point that we become dependent of them. Everyday problems keep growing even if their main goal is to make our lives easier. You just need to take a look to the media, everything is correlated.

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

no

[@aaronstepien2363]

ZeroDarknezz it was too much, too fast. In the future; psychology will study when these things overwhelmed an unready population and it will make the “mass hysteria’s of witchcraft” seem pale in comparison

[@diamondinvr]

@@mobeenkhan824 social media is engineered to be addictive and keep you coming back. It takes advantage of human psychology to keep people using it. Whether they're using it in a good way is second to the fact that they're using it, which is all corporations care about, since userbase is what makes them money, whether that's through ad exposure or selling data. So yeah, social media is definitely a problem

[@nomaddd123]

As much as I admire your channel and have been following for years I have to say that typically your architectural commentary is mediocre at best. Architecture at any age has had an inevitable relationship with money, means and cultures of construction, trade relations, technology in general and so on. It’s dangerously reductive to draw a line at modernism and say everything before was classicism (not really) and hence was beautiful. Not even mentioning to what extent of the societies within their regions those beautiful pieces of architecture were accessible to. A better way to approach this topic would be observing how and speed of construction has accelerated so much that disciplinary architectural thinking has fallen into a position of following what is constructed instead of leading it. 20th century indeed was a breaking point, precisely because of the disjunction between discipline and practice of architecture, and that is the real problem. It’s not a mere problem of aesthetics or losing track of what is beautiful, it’s an economic, technological, political problem.

[@Aaooee]

Well said. I too am a longtime fan of the channel but dislike De Botton's myopic take on architecture. I agree with the insights on Romanticism and religion and other common themes, but I find his reactionary take on architecture too be unhelpful. A superior philosophy of architecture is much more complicated than De Botton permits. I think what your comment begins to point out all the ways that judgements about form and function are complicated - as you say, "economic, technological, and political" considerations are a good place to start.

[@nomaddd123]

@@Aaooee Agree, and "myopic" is a good way to put it. In a way I do admire the intention of TSL but saying "here are the 5 reasons why" is such a clickbait approach ironically going against the usual dexterity with which they compose most of the Philosophy themed content..

[@RigbieWater]

Yeah I study architecture and this seems like a very subjective take, I wouldn't praise ugly post modern buildings but many contemporary architects have designed buildings can cause as much of an emotional response from me as much as other art pieces and classic architecture

[@issac7787]

As a fellow architect student i agree with this comment a lot, I appreciate TSL input but it always felt too short sighted, his argument would hold more of a valid point if ,like you said economical , technological and political perspective are considered

[@adhorapototry3329]

You are being way too polite. It's very poorly researched vomit of misinterpreted buzzwords with even more poorly constructed argument that sites zero sources behind the huge claim. It's a very personalized opinion presented as a hard fact, and as an architect and Master's student of Architectural Heritage I'm beyond pissed.

[@olivierballou392]

The focus on "Monopoly Man" capitalist property developers is odd, considering that many modernist architects were motivated by egalitarian concerns (i.e. housing more people is more important than having ornate buildings). Also, many of the most egregious brutalist buildings were commissioned by public entities (like council housing, city halls, schools and other government buildings) rather than private developers.

[@Bbenja4]

Yes, he doesn't mention the Soviet apartment block. The most impersonal, drab buildings ever made.

[@deeznoots6241]

Bryan B which replaced extremely poor quality housing that was far uglier and had awful living conditions, soviet housing blocks may not be aesthetically pleasing to some but they represent a massive improvement in the quality of life of tens of millions of people and are still quite favoured in eastern-bloc countries due to their amenities and locations

[@godofbiscuitssf]

Right? I was waiting for cartoons of fat cats in zoot suits.

[@Firex64]

You've missed one of the most important points: the population explosion. Big cities' populations multiplied by almost 10 in under a hundred years. There's no way to both provide everyone functional housing AND make them beautiful at the same time. Most buildings had bound to be ugly because of the demand for building fast and many. This is especially the case for developing nations, like eastern Europe and the far east. That being said, I don't find contemporary architecture as ugly as some people make it out to be. Massive glass skyscrapers mesmerize me and I find beauty in living in 2010+ made modern buildings. I believe things are not as ugly as they were in the 1960s and 70's anymore.

[@gildone84]

That's not true at all.

[@Lambert7785]

- to the degree that the world is ugly, it is because beauty comes into being because of inspiration; when inspiration is lacking, there can be no real beauty

[@Soobscoop9858]

I too think old buildings are much nicer that modern ones, You see old houses have nice woodwork and architecture, beutiful angles and shapes and stained glass, They were a peice of art and every house was unike in its own way… Meanwhile modern houses are plane soul-less boxes made of glass and concrete usually painted in grey or white… architecture has truly lost its charm and beuty.

[@svart-rav8072]

It seems to me this video doesn't get the complexity of how the modern world came into existence. Industrialization and mass production changed our world on every level. Social life, politics, ideologies, population and yes, also styles of living. That reflects in any kind of design nowadays, only in architecture it is maybe most obvious to people not from the field. Nowadays architecture production can not be thought without the politics and economics and by that also the explosive need for new infrastructure in the last century.

[@FromtheWindowSeat]

I’m not sure. There are some brutalist buildings that are strangely beautiful. 🤔

[@lornam3637]

I was showing a Bulgarian relative the beauties of Liverpool - the Three Graces, Oriel Chambers, the Town Hall, St Georges Hall, the Albert Dock, The Georgian Quarter. He made no comment and was the first visitor to not exclaim with delight that he had no idea Liverpool was so exquisite. And then we walked from the beautiful Water Street with aching feet and his face finally lit up. He was looking at the Brutalist Liverpool Crown Court, locally known as The Sandcastle. I made a mental note to show him the Dollan Baths in East Kilbride.

[@deceptivepanther]

True, but not if you have to live beside them.

[@enzoma7253]

No.

[@FromtheWindowSeat]

mellowman1001 Here’s a few: www.schoolhouse.com/blogs/conversations/brutalist-architecture

[@Beastnar]

Only if you buy into a relativist mindset. You can't describe what's beautiful about the buildings, because there are no esthetic components of them that makes them beautiful.

[@Zetcaq]

In Sweden, housing is expensive as hell no matter how new or old the building is. The worst kind of capitalism is building cheap anonymous buildings, and taking rent (or selling the appartments) for such an high price only the upper middle class and beyond can affort it. I'm not opposed to cheap buildings; I'm opposed the capitalistic thought of making a huge profit for something that by every means shouldn't only because of a schewed housing market bubble.

[@juliandavidac]

I'm an architect and i'm agree with you 100% The housing it's a human right not a business

[@brunoglopes]

I don’t understand why we need architects for modern buildings. All one needs is a ruler and a pencil to draw an ordinary-looking box. Those who design these buildings should honestly be ashamed.

[@jashoo8597]

sad but true. i used to practice and teach architecture, and i have to agree that 'beauty' is removed from architecture. architecture students are not even allowed to use the words "nice" or "beautiful" as those words are considered a lazy way to rationalise a sophisticated yet highly functional design concept. We (architecture professions and academics) do live in a different world from other people. Show a photo of a "Brutalist" building to a layman and see if he/she likes it as much as an architect.

[@BamberdittoPingpong]

Architecture as a study and architects really needs to get in touch with what most people prefer. Architecture study really is its own bubble and many still worship that guy with round glasses and completely disregard and trash on those two keywords you mentioned. Architects have a big power trip in how the public looks and how it feels, because its been studied that bad architecture is bad for health. Many architects think they know better and disregard public preferences as well.

[@effingsix3825]

Unexpected ads are interfering with the ideas.

[@Zen-ev2mi]

Four ads in ten minutes! 😭 not conducive to listening while doing the washing up at all 😄

[@Needkey.]

@@Zen-ev2mi There is this wonderful thing called Adblock, been around for a decade or so, have you heard of it?

[@OlivertheJoyboy]

This is so interesting, I have never thought about this before. Thanks for the knowledge

[@chaosdweller]

I guess I'll give it a try, since your saying it like that.

[@chaosdweller]

I'm almost done, and I'm so bored by it that I'm going to have to watch it again,....cause i caught myself not even listening at all........

[@benitocamelo1488]

Also, modern architecture looks very unremarkable and lacking of essence, and normally disrupts the cityscape. Like, you can see the newest buildings of most cities in any part of the world and they all look alike.

[@pigboykool]

The problem of modern day architect is that it is both Expensive & Ugly. It is anything but functional.

[@IshikaShanai]

The fact that my university showed up in this video makes me so happy because it really is an eyesore.

[@gregthebaritone]

My university was the first in the US to teach the Beaux-Arts curriculum in its architecture school. Now it is home to the world's ugliest new architecture.

[@BamberdittoPingpong]

All the school areas I’ve gone to so far have been beautiful with nice ornamentation. I can’t imagine going to an ugly school, I think it would make me physically ill. I’m skeptical of applying to my local university in my city just for the simple fact the architecture is ugly.

[@9grand]

Not sure the cities were so beautiful in the past. The Paris we know today , exists because they freed the city centre from the dark narrow street herited from tbe middle age

[@godofbiscuitssf]

And if they did the same to any of the small towns along the Amalfi Coast, it would utterly ruin them. But hey, let's call 'beauty' one single, narrow thing, right?

[@verdantpulse5185]

Much of the modern failure relates to the lack of detail at small scales. Steel and concrete monstrsities reveal nothing at ten feet that was unseen at two hundred feet away. A stone, mud, or wood building will have layers of detail that unveil on approach.

[@anujmayapuri2036]

As an architect I wish I could agree to all of this but one very important thing this video completely ignored. As architects we're also bound to build something that people want. It's like a mirror, some architects are still trying to use art as a medium, but the answer to this question is this - architecture is now closely related to science rather than art.

[@issac7787]

Or rather also we are rather helpless in this, most architect want to design beautiful building. But clients and greedy developer don't share our vision.

[@javierpacheco8234]

Very sad and I'm studying to become an architect, I'm not sure if architecture is my thing if my dream buildings that I aspired do not come true.

[@minalitalreja]

What we have lost is our connection to what makes us fully human

[@bhoomikachaudhari1784]

As an architecture student this did hit me and might change the way I design projects later... a channel like this that is not solely architectural, having such a deep message for architecture..great ya!

[@elmergoering2443]

It is possible to create a building that is both traditionally beautiful as well as practical for the modern day. Hope to see more beautiful buildings in the future.

[@defaultworkouts]

you will not find a job in that industry

[@philipadams5386]

The British Philosopher Roger Scruton speaks eloquently about why beauty matters in his documentary, Why Beauty Matters.

[@rickwrites2612]

​@@defaultworkouts creep

[@defaultworkouts]

@@rickwrites2612 uh, it's about economics and the labor market...it's not my opinion. those fields are awful to find labor in and most end up doing some other work to make ends meet.

[@theodorexenophon7612]

I like older architecture, but I also really appreciate the brutalist, modern looks as well. Some newer buildings have a sort of clean/sleek look that, at least to me, is really beautiful in it's own way.

[@vincentphilippart4669]

Though I somewhat agree, they are also depressing to live in or around, even the good ones.

[@theodorexenophon7612]

@Vincent Philippart For sure, the aesthetic isn't for everyone, though I think my bigger gripe with cities is is the lack of open public spaces, especially with regards to parks and natural spaces. Overall, newer cities are built around cars, not communities and walking, and i think safe, walkable cities would do a lot to improve the lives of those living in them.

[@abaanbdert1147]

It must be standing apart from old buildings , far apart

[@swunt10]

No it isn't

[@CB-nv8bs]

@@vincentphilippart4669plus even if the modern building is done genuinely nice, the materials they use to make them are so visibly cheap that the building looks like a life-sized Fisher Price toy. Like a fake building

[@vargrantvargrextends129]

As someone who lives in a 3rd world country. I find the modern buildings beautiful and the 1st world countrys roads and highways very well planned.

[@diegoarteaga1822]

Me too! I found the video to be just another "old good, modern bad", they didn't really gave good reasons for them to be "ugly", just repeated the function argument, and advocated for classic architecture.

[@themagicthermos4263]

@@cornloin9732 New York and beautiful don't go together.

[@Primergy89]

The 3rd world is our remaining hope for the future.. You can adapt everything which is good but ignore the 1st world's mistakes.

[@jr3753]

@@cornloin9732 LA is not beautiful...

[@RigbieWater]

LA is especially ugly in the more urbanized areas and the mansions in rich areas range from nice to disgusting waste of millions

[@AnthonyLiccione]

"A beautiful world with ugly people; an ugly world with beautiful people. We can never win."

[@shaggybreeks]

You seem to think that ornamentation is beauty. You don't seem to realize that beauty is a subjective thing, and that simplicity can be beautiful, too.

[@hasitdawnedonyou]

I’m contemplating studying architecture n this shows up. As always, apt 😂

[@acmulhern]

Well then this viddo is very important for you. In architecture school anyone trying to make something beautiful was called "pastiche" or "kitsh". I'm now working as an architect making classical and vernacular buildings. We're a rare breed but we do exist :)

[@Speadraser]

The algorithm works

[@pietervoogt]

@@acmulhern Can you share some of your projects? I'm interested in modern versions of traditional esthetics

[@stedjuba259]

Please change the world

[@keshavrao212]

@@acmulhern I LOVE YOU! THANKS FOR MAKING THESE KIND OF BUILDINGS! Now I am in peace

[@abibnoor]

8:35 Architecture is on this basis alone the most important of the arts and yet its also the one we are never taught anything about all the way through school. Very very true.

[@NusratJAHAN1981]

You may elegantly theorize an idea with a lot of incomplete/misleading hypothesis, but that does noy make it correct. Only the argument on natural materials holds some water. The rests are misleading/overblown. The main reason of bad architecture is its democratization; never in human history so many people had so much money in their hands, often people without a 'class'. And they are demanding houses that may not be aesthetically pleasing to elite eyes but rather serves their functional purpose.

[@hellucination9905]

Let us return to an aristocratic order of society.

[@Ragitsu]

@@hellucination9905 You first.

[@Masanumi]

I hate these grey buildings. Doesn't help if you have depression. Germans always love to travel to these old little places abroad, be happy there and then come home, rave about the beauty of it and get misery again. We hardly have such places anymore. Except Dinkelsbühl, a city with a wall made in the medivial time and every house pure antic style with the street name painting in old german on every wall of the house.

[@benediktheudorfer6334]

Modern architecture reflects the state of our society: people (and their need for aesthetic harmony) don't count. What counts is money. Cost-efficiency. Pure materialism. The victory of economism above all other forms of thinking. The reasons you described are mere consequences of this fundamental shift in thinking. It shapes the very structure of modern society. The peculiar phenomenology of modern architecture is just a side effect.

[@lil10dot]

I'm so glad you posted this, minimalism is so impersonal and boring, modern futurism as well, and cars all look the same

[@lil10dot]

you forgot how architecture hides c*pitalism; worker identities (in how industrial buildings hide whats inside vs how they used to expose the labour within) and the number of studies strongly linking aesthetics to well being

[@doc7000]

The thing that bothers me the most are those with no "culture" who look at modern architecture and are pleased by it, though I can understand someone who grew up in the slums being impressed by how clean and neat things look those places really lack character.

[@GustavoGomes-nn5np]

Most slum people coming to the middle class is the reason of my city modern revolution aka the ugly building at the center

[@mechineylee]

Modern architecture is so ugly***

[@alifbagas6]

Better than homeless

[@Beastnar]

@@alifbagas6 What a well thought out argument, as if those are the two only options...

[@alifbagas6]

@@Beastnar if you come from developing nations, you'll realize that blocky apartment does better than a slums

[@Beastnar]

@@alifbagas6 You missed the point

[@davidmella1174]

@@alifbagas6 and are those slums beautiful to anyone there?

[@phatato]

That last comment about beauty being more expensive an exclusive than ever in history it is so true and insightful!

[@lazarusblackwell6988]

I would love it if someone built something inspiring in the nearby city. The city looks like a chicken coop where chickens sleep.

[@praetorianguard5696]

People defending these buildings and this kind of "modernism" look like those modern artists that try to defend their "pieces of art" and condemn people because they are just too ignorant, too uneducated too etc etc to understand their work. So while we admire those masterpieces from long ago and while we're longing for them, they keep telling among themselves how fantastic their works are, building this echo chamber of self-gratitude and self-approval, while trying to bring us all in their "beautiful" world.

[@anonb4632]

My guesses -1) Cost cutting, 2) mass production and 3) the lack of imagination in society... Now I'm off to see the video, and whether we agree.

[@alexandrosgrigoris632]

Another huge problem is that the population has increased so much that it would be impossible to create so many beautiful buildings.

[@CatherineChicago]

LouisSullivan said "form follows function," and he created some of the most beautiful buildings ever in America. You have misunderstood his meaning.

[@javierpacheco8234]

Yes and this is unfortunate because Louis Sullivan who coined the term "form follows function" actually designed astonishing and very ornate buildings. He never said to get rid of ornaments or symmetry, he just wanted an architecture that represents America, and he also said that a skyscraper should be a beautiful soaring thing. Most architects and educators always get ethos wrongly said because they say that it doesn't matter how a building looks like what matters is the function (the purpose), in other words form follows function has been misinterpreted.

[@MORTYCJA]

i've always adored brutalism, but it gets really boring to see the same cookie-cutter type skyscraper all over the world

[@redheadindenial]

Which is funny, given that brutalism hasn't really produced many skyscrapers. Brutalism is massive, not tall.

[@MechanicWolf85]

I understand what you are saying but skyscrapers arent brutalist, that's more mirror Esque architecture you are talking about, which are dull and lifeless

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

Good luck convincing someone to pay for a beautiful building.

[@menacinghat]

they won't pay for it, but their children will pay for its absence with their mental health

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

Clancer a beginning solution would be to stop building outward. Sprawl will kill us faster than any boring building

[@TheStarhorse1]

Beauty is not subjective. No honest person ever looked at a flower, and said, “How ugly. I prefer looking at a pile of poop.” We have statues of horses, not cockroaches, because everyone generally agrees that horses are majestic, and bugs are gross. The subjectivity argument is just an excuse for the arrogant to pretend at intellectualism.

[@peitrodominic1011]

Hmm....I have found that modern art critics have functionally become like porn addicts that can no longer enjoy normal sex and can only get off to scatophillia.

[@markgladman2789]

I'm a firm believer that ugly buildings breeds ugly behaviour.

[@antonivan5]

I disagree. Classical buildings lack abstraction. Good modernist buildings give me deep satisfaction the way science does. The sense of aesthetics allows to feel beyond the mundane. Good modernist buildings feel like art in a very deep way. I disagree deeply.

[@wobblebop4611]

We must return to our roots. Diversity is NOT our strength, UNITY is, with our own great people.

[@Leerill]

The problem with generic critiques of modernism like this is they just ignore all the beautiful modern architecture. They also confuse modernism with contemporary corporate architecture which are not the same thing, the idea that the likes of Loos would approve of glass iconographic skyscrapers is kinda absurd (people should read ornament & crime! You can get the PDF online for free, it's a really wonderful essay that is often maligned because of its provactive title) There are still architects that build contempoary buildings in classical styles; and in my opinion they're often just as 'ugly' because they are shaped by the same market forces and short-sighted 'urbanism' as most 'modern' eyesores. There's a lot of people in the comments bemoaning the ugliness of developing nations and praising the beauty of pre-war european cities - go find pictures and documentation of the slum conditions that many, many people lived in during those years. These were ugly, brutal places that we demolished (bombed) the ugly stuff in and kept the 'beautiful'. Not to say anything about the massive challenges in designing incredibly dense cities today... we shouldn't describe pre-modern cities as 'dense', they were mostly overcrowded slums for everyone except the wealthy. As a practicing housing architect I can say (that at least in our office) beauty is talked about a lot, but so are many other things; amenity, sustainabilty, generosity to the public realm, economy, site constraints, the will and desires of existing and possible residents, accessibility, relationships to the existing city, wayfinding, streets, etc! If you want to make things beautiful you need to get rid of 'free' market capitalism's abilty to direct our built environment. We will never deliver on beauty (or much else on the list above tbh) because ANYTHING that doesn't deliver to the bottom line is seen as frivolous. Architecture isn't directed by some Randian architects will and indivual stylistic prefferences, it's dictated by cash.

[@Beastnar]

There is no such thing as beautiful modern architecture, because modern architecture in itself lacks any aesthetic components that makes it beautiful, as is heavily emphasized in the video. Both modern and "contemporary corporate" architecture as you call it, is rooted in the same mindset of rejecting/lacking the knowledge of traditional proportions, adaptation to surroundings, decorative elements, etc. Loos is a perfect example of being a key person in causing the uglification/aesthetic destruction of modern citites and architecture. Your point about pre-war slum areas shows a lack of historical awareness. Have you ever heard of gentrification? In many european cities today, lower class worker's housing and even the slummiest of areas are now prime real estate. Saying it was all bombed is a blatant lie. Blaming it all on free market capitalism is a petty excuse to try to get rid of the blame. The reason modern architecture is ugly is in large due to the modernist architects themselves, such as Loos as you mentioned. The early modernists destroyed the use of decorative elements, whereas later on architects started constructing a false sense of beauty in modern buildings, in the same way modern artists hype up a painting absent of artistic value. And in that sense brainwashing the people and future architects by relativizing beauty to be anything.

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

The denial of human nature was an intellectual anomaly of historic proportions. It appears not only in architecture, but also in the great social changes of the 20th century. Some of these trends continue to this day.

[@hellucination9905]

Best comment so far!

[@Ragitsu]

Vague.

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

@@Ragitsu Indeed. I can be more specific...

[@Ragitsu]

@@joaodecarvalho7012 I have an idea of where this conversation is headed, but I welcome the opportunity to be disproven.

[@DannieKamete]

Another problem is with an ever-growing population and urbanization, the need to provide enough housing and workplaces quickly favours functional design over beautiful design

[@NathanEllery]

Interesting perspective. Could also mention the cost of labor rising because much of old school beauty can be very labor intensive. We no longer have cheap peasants and serfs. Could also mention modern technologies of steel in buildings and the greatly improved performance of reinforced (and sometimes pre-stressed) concrete. Personally I think we have moved past brutal modernism and it tends to be more finessed with some decoration.

[@peitrodominic1011]

Independent tradesmen, not peasants or serfs, were the principle builders in the medieval age and they were not cheap nor disposable! Hence why medieval cathedrals took hundreds of years to complete while in Muslim, a.e slave owning, countries of the same period completed mosques of comparably size in decades.

[@NathanEllery]

@@peitrodominic1011 But would they not have their own cheap labor? Certainly labor costs have risen and a big % have moved from poverty into the middle class with a middle cla$$ level life$tyle. Hence why much is imported from the 3rd world.

[@haphazardhauls8375]

"The nervous and precise among us who like things to be neatly lined up, who are disturbed when a picture is slightly askew or the knife and fork aren't equidistant from the plate grew ever more sorrowful." Is that really the kind of attitude and personality that The School of Life typically encourages? Being incredibly compulsive and unnecessarily anxious??

[@gorgoniodtukmul]

"Modernism is a parody of beauty"

[@chaosdweller]

🤔