4 ms·

It's also worth realizing that much of style comes from technology -- an architect makes his name by designing something that couldn't have been built fifty yea

It's also worth realizing that much of style comes from technology -- an architect makes his name by designing something that couldn't have been built fifty years ago. Much of 19th century style was built around millwork, because millwork let you use this wide flat boards and linear patterns that were all but impossible to do at scale before. For the 20th, you had glass, steel and concrete -- because again, there were things you could do with concrete that you just couldn't before. So it was back to the beginning of time; you give an architect a flying buttress, and he's going to use it.

trgn 5y ago
But the flying buttress solved a need. They wanted to build higher because they wanted to celebrate god in an even more glorious fashion, bringing in more light, more stained glass, more people in front of the altar. The difference with modernism, which is really a mindset, and so deeply seeped in we barely recognize it anymore, is that technology, in and of itself, is a value. That is why we have the flat roof in Scotland. The value is not keeping the inhabitants dry, or being mindful of long term maintenance issues. Technology, especially high technology, demands its application. That is modernism. It's a curse. Contrast this very clearly against humanism. Man is measure of all things. Not, as in modernism, that man should adapt to the measure. It's not that technology wasn't valued, but only as a tool, a means to an end. Or a means of understanding, a metaphor. The telescope is an implement of science, not a fetisj. In modernism, the tool is fetishized. The concrete that enabled shaping walls at large scales, now must be everywhere. Why, why would a living space demand that it be harsh, and in odd large shapes? It does not. But because at one point reinforced concrete was high technology, it must. It's a very infantile mindset, like a toddler, who has similar infatuations.

trgn 5y ago

But the flying buttress solved a need. They wanted to build higher because they wanted to celebrate god in an even more glorious fashion, bringing in more light, more stained glass, more people in front of the altar. The difference with modernism, which is really a mindset, and so deeply seeped in we barely recognize it anymore, is that technology, in and of itself, is a value. That is why we have the flat roof in Scotland. The value is not keeping the inhabitants dry, or being mindful of long term maintenance issues. Technology, especially high technology, demands its application. That is modernism. It's a curse. Contrast this very clearly against humanism. Man is measure of all things. Not, as in modernism, that man should adapt to the measure. It's not that technology wasn't valued, but only as a tool, a means to an end. Or a means of understanding, a metaphor. The telescope is an implement of science, not a fetisj. In modernism, the tool is fetishized. The concrete that enabled shaping walls at large scales, now must be everywhere. Why, why would a living space demand that it be harsh, and in odd large shapes? It does not. But because at one point reinforced concrete was high technology, it must. It's a very infantile mindset, like a toddler, who has similar infatuations.