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People do flock to modern constructions, of course. Getty Center, Bauhaus museum in Berlin, Guggenheim museum, Gropius House, Sydney opera house, Oslo opera hou

People do flock to modern constructions, of course. Getty Center, Bauhaus museum in Berlin, Guggenheim museum, Gropius House, Sydney opera house, Oslo opera house — too many to mention! Not all modern architecture is worth admiring, but I for one consider many "brutalist bunkers" to be very beautiful, more so than the Pantheon. There's lots of old architecture that was, once, "original and conceptual" (in the derogatory sense that I think you meant). It's just that these styles are so established that we don't recognize them as innovations anymore, and they're therefore not "weird modernisms".

arebop 8y ago
The objection is not to innovation or originality per se. Nobody is saying that the first example of a concept is always terrible. It's merely almost always terrible. So if you want to produce a good built environment, you are almost always better off doing a humble minor variation on the thousands-years-old beloved tradition than attempting a monument to your own genius.
tigershark 8y ago
Then go to live inside one of those horrid abomination of buildings if you really like them. From my point of view I can’t wait until someone finally decides to get rid of those brutalist monstrosities.
harry8 8y ago
All of the modern buildings you mention had an immense budget and were intended to be great buildings for generations. This doesn't always work but most of the time it isn't even attempted. The facades in the article front buildings that would never and could never be in that class. "We have a street frontage, people like the look of it, keep it." Seems reasonable to me when the alternative is "Can an architect with a cost-minded budget do something people will like better?" Because that answer is usually no. (Why? Is a good question to ask.) If people don't like the street frontage, bring it down, have a go! There is rather a lot of preciousness in architecture and it would seem a contempt for what people actually like is in evidence more often than it should be. UX testing on architecture, is that even a thing?
- newman8r 8y ago
  UX testing on architecture - could be a pretty good VR startup.
- rwallace 8y ago
  > All of the modern buildings you mention had an immense budget and were intended to be great buildings for generations. So was the Pantheon. Survivor bias invites us to compare the great, high-budget buildings of previous centuries with the average, lowest-bidder constructions of our own.

arebop 8y ago

The objection is not to innovation or originality per se. Nobody is saying that the first example of a concept is always terrible. It's merely almost always terrible. So if you want to produce a good built environment, you are almost always better off doing a humble minor variation on the thousands-years-old beloved tradition than attempting a monument to your own genius.

tigershark 8y ago

Then go to live inside one of those horrid abomination of buildings if you really like them. From my point of view I can’t wait until someone finally decides to get rid of those brutalist monstrosities.

harry8 8y ago

All of the modern buildings you mention had an immense budget and were intended to be great buildings for generations. This doesn't always work but most of the time it isn't even attempted. The facades in the article front buildings that would never and could never be in that class. "We have a street frontage, people like the look of it, keep it." Seems reasonable to me when the alternative is "Can an architect with a cost-minded budget do something people will like better?" Because that answer is usually no. (Why? Is a good question to ask.) If people don't like the street frontage, bring it down, have a go! There is rather a lot of preciousness in architecture and it would seem a contempt for what people actually like is in evidence more often than it should be. UX testing on architecture, is that even a thing?

newman8r 8y ago
UX testing on architecture - could be a pretty good VR startup.
rwallace 8y ago
> All of the modern buildings you mention had an immense budget and were intended to be great buildings for generations. So was the Pantheon. Survivor bias invites us to compare the great, high-budget buildings of previous centuries with the average, lowest-bidder constructions of our own.