5 ms·

Any valid critiques the author may have are completely lost in the contempt and pretentiousness of her writing style. Additionally, I am incredibly skeptical o

Any valid critiques the author may have are completely lost in the contempt and pretentiousness of her writing style. Additionally, I am incredibly skeptical of her ability to judge the quality of a house's construction based on a single exterior photo.

erikpukinskis 10y ago
Funny, I thought the author is mostly correct, and also chucked quite a few times at the silly writing. To each her own.
- ghaff 10y ago
  I basically agree with her while cringing at a lot of the academic jargon around design language. I do believe that consistency of style in architecture is a thing while recognizing that homes are in service of how people use their interiors.
Turing_Machine 10y ago
Presumably the people who actually buy the "McMansions" don't think they look all that bad. Otherwise they'd buy something else, right?
- flukus 10y ago
  Or they buy what they can afford.
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    That too, in which case sneering at them is plain ol' snobbery. No one is making McMansion haters buy one or live in one. Me, I can't imagine why anyone would willingly live in San Francisco or New York City, but people obviously do. I just don't feel the need to write snobby articles criticizing them for their lifestyle choices.
    - flukus 10y ago
      The biggest objection seems to be from the urban sprawl they (help) create and the externalities that causes everyone else. So even phrasing it as some sort of taste, quality or architectural design issue doesn't make sense to me.
      - mrep 10y ago
        > The biggest objection seems to be from the urban sprawl they (help) create and the externalities that causes everyone else. Now that is an article I would want to read!
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - stephen_g 10y ago
      Good design doesn't have to be expensive. And surely the larger of these badly designed houses (which seem to be the worst) can't be that cheap?
- mannykannot 10y ago
  When you are in it, you don't have to look at it.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  You only need to look at 70s/80s fashions to know that "don't think they look all that bad" isn't the same thing as "not bad", though.
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    Yeah, fashions change. So? Edit: yes, 70s and 80s fashions have now been decreed "bad" by those who claim to have superior taste. 20 years from now they'll be "good" again. Wait and see.
    - eyelidlessness 10y ago
      Those have already been good again, and bad again, several times over.
- ashark 10y ago
  Sometimes (often? usually?) it's just that by the time you narrow it down to 1) houses that will let all my kids have their own bedroom, in 2) a school district where I won't have panic attacks about what a horrible experience I'm putting my kids through, and 3) in my budget... all that's left are McMansions, or smaller houses that similarly maximize space and ease of construction over quality of materials or nicer design. [edit] in fact I'd bet that, in my city at least, the overwhelming majority of mid-sized to large family houses that would sit on the lower half of the author's scale are in bad school districts, and many are neglected and deteriorating in outright slums.
honkhonkpants 10y ago
I find it to be one of the funniest tumblrs around. I frequently burst into laughter from the photo captions.
ryandrake 10y ago
Come on. It's entertainment. Like http://www.peopleofwalmart.com http://www.peopleofwalmart.com it's a lighthearted laugh at people with zero taste. Or, to put it in terms HN will get: Do a code review of really bad unnecessarily-complicated code. It's hard to NOT think things like: "Jeez, this person doesn't know what they're doing." and "This code is confusing and ugly, but the writer probably thinks it's elegant." McMansion design is like someone throwing every design pattern that exists into their code because someone told them once that design patterns are good.
- cm2012 10y ago
  POWM is a bad example... it mocks people with really shitty lives.
- NoGravitas 10y ago
  Basically, the Daily WTF, but for houses.
- pluma 10y ago
  Wow, never heard of POWM before but that's one hateful piece of "entertainment" if I've ever seen one. The entire entertainment value seems to be based on publicly shaming people. I have no idea how you can consider this "lighthearted". That's 4chan level misanthropy right there.
  - cylinder 10y ago
    There's been a shift in American humor, and others have noted, due to the class division probably; we used to laugh with each other, or maybe laugh together at the authorities, but now we are laughing at each other, or better put, we are laughing at them. Here's a recent illustrative Saturday Night Live sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WytdYtzyZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WytdYtzyZg
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

erikpukinskis 10y ago

Funny, I thought the author is mostly correct, and also chucked quite a few times at the silly writing. To each her own.

ghaff 10y ago
I basically agree with her while cringing at a lot of the academic jargon around design language. I do believe that consistency of style in architecture is a thing while recognizing that homes are in service of how people use their interiors.

Turing_Machine 10y ago

Presumably the people who actually buy the "McMansions" don't think they look all that bad. Otherwise they'd buy something else, right?

flukus 10y ago
Or they buy what they can afford.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  That too, in which case sneering at them is plain ol' snobbery. No one is making McMansion haters buy one or live in one. Me, I can't imagine why anyone would willingly live in San Francisco or New York City, but people obviously do. I just don't feel the need to write snobby articles criticizing them for their lifestyle choices.
  - flukus 10y ago
    The biggest objection seems to be from the urban sprawl they (help) create and the externalities that causes everyone else. So even phrasing it as some sort of taste, quality or architectural design issue doesn't make sense to me.
    - mrep 10y ago
      > The biggest objection seems to be from the urban sprawl they (help) create and the externalities that causes everyone else. Now that is an article I would want to read!
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
  - stephen_g 10y ago
    Good design doesn't have to be expensive. And surely the larger of these badly designed houses (which seem to be the worst) can't be that cheap?
mannykannot 10y ago
When you are in it, you don't have to look at it.
ceejayoz 10y ago
You only need to look at 70s/80s fashions to know that "don't think they look all that bad" isn't the same thing as "not bad", though.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  Yeah, fashions change. So? Edit: yes, 70s and 80s fashions have now been decreed "bad" by those who claim to have superior taste. 20 years from now they'll be "good" again. Wait and see.
  - eyelidlessness 10y ago
    Those have already been good again, and bad again, several times over.
ashark 10y ago
Sometimes (often? usually?) it's just that by the time you narrow it down to 1) houses that will let all my kids have their own bedroom, in 2) a school district where I won't have panic attacks about what a horrible experience I'm putting my kids through, and 3) in my budget... all that's left are McMansions, or smaller houses that similarly maximize space and ease of construction over quality of materials or nicer design. [edit] in fact I'd bet that, in my city at least, the overwhelming majority of mid-sized to large family houses that would sit on the lower half of the author's scale are in bad school districts, and many are neglected and deteriorating in outright slums.

honkhonkpants 10y ago

I find it to be one of the funniest tumblrs around. I frequently burst into laughter from the photo captions.

ryandrake 10y ago

Come on. It's entertainment. Like http://www.peopleofwalmart.com http://www.peopleofwalmart.com it's a lighthearted laugh at people with zero taste. Or, to put it in terms HN will get: Do a code review of really bad unnecessarily-complicated code. It's hard to NOT think things like: "Jeez, this person doesn't know what they're doing." and "This code is confusing and ugly, but the writer probably thinks it's elegant." McMansion design is like someone throwing every design pattern that exists into their code because someone told them once that design patterns are good.

cm2012 10y ago
POWM is a bad example... it mocks people with really shitty lives.
NoGravitas 10y ago
Basically, the Daily WTF, but for houses.
pluma 10y ago
Wow, never heard of POWM before but that's one hateful piece of "entertainment" if I've ever seen one. The entire entertainment value seems to be based on publicly shaming people. I have no idea how you can consider this "lighthearted". That's 4chan level misanthropy right there.
- cylinder 10y ago
  There's been a shift in American humor, and others have noted, due to the class division probably; we used to laugh with each other, or maybe laugh together at the authorities, but now we are laughing at each other, or better put, we are laughing at them. Here's a recent illustrative Saturday Night Live sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WytdYtzyZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WytdYtzyZg
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]