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My feelings exactly,but I have never come accross a profession more obsessed about winning awards than architecture. They will continue designing in a style th

My feelings exactly,but I have never come accross a profession more obsessed about winning awards than architecture. They will continue designing in a style that wins awards and professional recognition, while the public are stuck with them for decades.

michaelt 8y ago
Are you sure there isn't an element of selection bias in that opinion? I mean, sure, the designer of the Stata Center [1] at MIT might have been aiming to impress other architects and win awards. That's why we've heard of it. The designer of Knox Road Multistorey Car Park in Cardiff wasn't aiming for architecture awards - which is why you've never heard of the place. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_and_Maria_Stata_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_and_Maria_Stata_Center
- steve19 8y ago
  Google "architect award winning car park". (I am pretty sure that every architectal project over a certain number of million dollars is guaranteed to win one or more awards) I don't think it's selection bias. It's the same in software. User hostile faddish resigned are common, backed by some BS narrative. But other than the few times it had destoryed shareholder value (Snapchat) it doesn't really matter because the entire site/app will be redesigned in a couple of years. But a terrible concrete monstrosity can be around for decades and decades.
- gumby 8y ago
  And yet the Cardiff car park is likely more pleasant to park in than building 32 is to work in. We used a semi-fancy architect to design our house, and while I'm glad we did we had to push's a lot to design in things like closets, much less other "habitability" features. Many award-winning buildings aren't actually as functional as the awards would imply (just think of the open office trend, which photographs well but is hardly good for productivity!). Ironically that same architect designed...a car park, which is actually quite nice. (I object to MIT's relatively recent decision to start using names of donors for buildings rather than simply the building number -- building 32 is the stata building).
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    > And yet the Cardiff car park is likely more pleasant to park in than building 32 is to work in. I can find pictures of the outside of the Cardiff car park, but I can't find anybody showing off the inside. What's so nice about parking in it?
    - gumby 8y ago
      I don't know, but building 32 is pretty terrible.

michaelt 8y ago

Are you sure there isn't an element of selection bias in that opinion? I mean, sure, the designer of the Stata Center [1] at MIT might have been aiming to impress other architects and win awards. That's why we've heard of it. The designer of Knox Road Multistorey Car Park in Cardiff wasn't aiming for architecture awards - which is why you've never heard of the place. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_and_Maria_Stata_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_and_Maria_Stata_Center

steve19 8y ago
Google "architect award winning car park". (I am pretty sure that every architectal project over a certain number of million dollars is guaranteed to win one or more awards) I don't think it's selection bias. It's the same in software. User hostile faddish resigned are common, backed by some BS narrative. But other than the few times it had destoryed shareholder value (Snapchat) it doesn't really matter because the entire site/app will be redesigned in a couple of years. But a terrible concrete monstrosity can be around for decades and decades.
gumby 8y ago
And yet the Cardiff car park is likely more pleasant to park in than building 32 is to work in. We used a semi-fancy architect to design our house, and while I'm glad we did we had to push's a lot to design in things like closets, much less other "habitability" features. Many award-winning buildings aren't actually as functional as the awards would imply (just think of the open office trend, which photographs well but is hardly good for productivity!). Ironically that same architect designed...a car park, which is actually quite nice. (I object to MIT's relatively recent decision to start using names of donors for buildings rather than simply the building number -- building 32 is the stata building).
- darkpuma 8y ago
  > And yet the Cardiff car park is likely more pleasant to park in than building 32 is to work in. I can find pictures of the outside of the Cardiff car park, but I can't find anybody showing off the inside. What's so nice about parking in it?
  - gumby 8y ago
    I don't know, but building 32 is pretty terrible.