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OK. Hopefully I'm not putting words in your mouth. You think the author's explanation of why McMansions look like garbage is too soft and squishy. Too "subjecti

OK. Hopefully I'm not putting words in your mouth. You think the author's explanation of why McMansions look like garbage is too soft and squishy. Too "subjective." In reality, it's all just personal taste, and as we know, there's no accounting for taste. Serious question: do you think this house looks beautiful? http://65.media.tumblr.com/5cfa243ca7f2997cf794ed190c24c38b/tumblr_inline_obrdug3QsV1sppt0x_500.jpg http://65.media.tumblr.com/5cfa243ca7f2997cf794ed190c24c38b/... Does it look better, worse, or the same as this house? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Thomas_Jefferson's_Monticello.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Thomas_J... Do you think a large majority of people would agree with your personal, subjective taste in this case?

erichocean 10y ago
Is there really a lawn on TJ's front porch? That looks fun to mow…
lake99 10y ago
I agree with everything laretluval and Houshalter have said about the topic, and since they haven't answered your question, I'll do it. 1. I don't think it's fair to compare the two houses. The person who built the second house seems to have spent a lot more money than the person who build the first. 2. The first one gives the appearance that it has many tiny rooms, which I don't like. 3. I don't like the styling of either house. They both have weird styling elements (I don't the technical terms).
notahacker 10y ago
Let's go back to the author's own explanation. Half the examples the author uses of appropriate balance in design look dreadful to me. I mean, I don't think you'll have problems finding people who think the purposeful asymmetry and complexity of the form of this McMansion (horrible details, but that's beside the point) http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/tumblr_inline_obrdua0UTB1sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/... is less jarring than the oversized porch and rather forced symmetry of this house http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/tumblr_inline_obrdua0UTB1sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/... I suspect that you won't find a majority who think this architecturally interesting but rather disconcerting house which seems almost to be split into two discrete components http://66.media.tumblr.com/ef085492f16fa90eca55b34c2edb4f6e/tumblr_inline_obrdubxrmA1sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/ef085492f16fa90eca55b34c2edb4f6e/... is more balanced and harmonious than this bland McMansion with a rather more subtle asymmetry of styling and no centreline http://66.media.tumblr.com/b60dfce3f94da6a03ded2c7c1acd2f34/tumblr_inline_obrdueX7l51sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/b60dfce3f94da6a03ded2c7c1acd2f34/... And above all, picking holes in an architect's work is easy. I'm really not convinced that many people would consider this house with its oversized, overbearing gable and clumsy porch with ludicrously oversized pillars to be a model of a "properly proportioned house", regardless of the author's delight at it as an example of how to balance the top and bottom halves of an elevation http://66.media.tumblr.com/aacf83efd66eded7cffe5f42716fbe36/tumblr_inline_obrdudifYk1sppt0x_500.jpg http://66.media.tumblr.com/aacf83efd66eded7cffe5f42716fbe36/... Architects can easily ignore centre-lines and rules of thirds and concepts of primary and secondary massing and matching windows and produce great houses, and they can easily follow them rigidly and produce something which is a shoddily-built mixture of poor imitations of different historical styles that's not built to a human friendly scale. P.S. I see your Monticello and raise you Fallingwater...
Noos 10y ago
Problem is Monticello red brick and neoclassical style is what a lot of public buildings in the 1960s and 1970s seemed to ape. Many US people might like the former because the latter reminds them a bit too much of a courthouse, the DMV, or a church.

erichocean 10y ago

Is there really a lawn on TJ's front porch? That looks fun to mow…

lake99 10y ago

I agree with everything laretluval and Houshalter have said about the topic, and since they haven't answered your question, I'll do it. 1. I don't think it's fair to compare the two houses. The person who built the second house seems to have spent a lot more money than the person who build the first. 2. The first one gives the appearance that it has many tiny rooms, which I don't like. 3. I don't like the styling of either house. They both have weird styling elements (I don't the technical terms).

notahacker 10y ago

Let's go back to the author's own explanation. Half the examples the author uses of appropriate balance in design look dreadful to me. I mean, I don't think you'll have problems finding people who think the purposeful asymmetry and complexity of the form of this McMansion (horrible details, but that's beside the point) http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/tumblr_inline_obrdua0UTB1sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/... is less jarring than the oversized porch and rather forced symmetry of this house http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/tumblr_inline_obrdua0UTB1sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/985ce3af7d99be6789a3d60733d87bdb/... I suspect that you won't find a majority who think this architecturally interesting but rather disconcerting house which seems almost to be split into two discrete components http://66.media.tumblr.com/ef085492f16fa90eca55b34c2edb4f6e/tumblr_inline_obrdubxrmA1sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/ef085492f16fa90eca55b34c2edb4f6e/... is more balanced and harmonious than this bland McMansion with a rather more subtle asymmetry of styling and no centreline http://66.media.tumblr.com/b60dfce3f94da6a03ded2c7c1acd2f34/tumblr_inline_obrdueX7l51sppt0x_500.png http://66.media.tumblr.com/b60dfce3f94da6a03ded2c7c1acd2f34/... And above all, picking holes in an architect's work is easy. I'm really not convinced that many people would consider this house with its oversized, overbearing gable and clumsy porch with ludicrously oversized pillars to be a model of a "properly proportioned house", regardless of the author's delight at it as an example of how to balance the top and bottom halves of an elevation http://66.media.tumblr.com/aacf83efd66eded7cffe5f42716fbe36/tumblr_inline_obrdudifYk1sppt0x_500.jpg http://66.media.tumblr.com/aacf83efd66eded7cffe5f42716fbe36/... Architects can easily ignore centre-lines and rules of thirds and concepts of primary and secondary massing and matching windows and produce great houses, and they can easily follow them rigidly and produce something which is a shoddily-built mixture of poor imitations of different historical styles that's not built to a human friendly scale. P.S. I see your Monticello and raise you Fallingwater...

Noos 10y ago

Problem is Monticello red brick and neoclassical style is what a lot of public buildings in the 1960s and 1970s seemed to ape. Many US people might like the former because the latter reminds them a bit too much of a courthouse, the DMV, or a church.