3 ms·

I can tell you haven't been there, which is okay, but I have to try to explain it. The Salk Institute is inarguably one of the most beautiful man made places i

I can tell you haven't been there, which is okay, but I have to try to explain it. The Salk Institute is inarguably one of the most beautiful man made places in southern California. It was built with the explicit intent to attract and cluster the best and brightest minds in the world so they could work together to eliminate human disease. It's all human scale, calm, focused ... the concrete is somehow warm. It masterfully directs the sunlight around it and creates contrasting shadowy nooks where people can chat and take refuge from the heat on hot days. It's inspiring. You can feel the creative power within its walls. Brilliant people from every corner of the globe still uproot their lives just to work there. There are many awful examples of brutalist architecture, but this building isn't one.

barrysteve 3y ago
Cube is cube. Shapes can support skilled expressions of beauty. The least effort spent on drawing a curve, by hand or mathematically, has more beauty than cube. You know what else provides shade in hot days? Trees. Shade cloth. Umbrellas. Sails. Statues. Market stalls. Extrusions. ext. Cube is cube. You can feel anything when it's written. If it's a cold day and your dog just died (or whatever is enough in your personal life to make you slightly unhappy), I'd prefer to be anywhere else in the world than huddled for warmth behind a grey Cube, with the ever present discomfort of infectious disease protocols in the back of my mind. Cube is completely submitted to the purpose of the building, it has no relation to the human body or experience. Cube is cube.
- detourdog 3y ago
  A cell is as Robert Hooke noticed is also a cube. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(biology)#/media/File:Wilson1900Fig2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(biology)#/media/File:Wil...
  - barrysteve 3y ago
    Okay yes true. Cube shapes are everywhere. And reductionism, minimalism and brutalism have their virtues. I am content to die on the hill that Cube is ugly, if my concession is pleasing.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
  You're entitled to your opinion.
  - tarsinge 3y ago
    As you with your opinion that it is a beautiful construction in the first place. Difference is the Parent’s opinion was suppressed in modern architecture and yours was imposed.

barrysteve 3y ago

Cube is cube. Shapes can support skilled expressions of beauty. The least effort spent on drawing a curve, by hand or mathematically, has more beauty than cube. You know what else provides shade in hot days? Trees. Shade cloth. Umbrellas. Sails. Statues. Market stalls. Extrusions. ext. Cube is cube. You can feel anything when it's written. If it's a cold day and your dog just died (or whatever is enough in your personal life to make you slightly unhappy), I'd prefer to be anywhere else in the world than huddled for warmth behind a grey Cube, with the ever present discomfort of infectious disease protocols in the back of my mind. Cube is completely submitted to the purpose of the building, it has no relation to the human body or experience. Cube is cube.

detourdog 3y ago
A cell is as Robert Hooke noticed is also a cube. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(biology)#/media/File:Wilson1900Fig2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(biology)#/media/File:Wil...
- barrysteve 3y ago
  Okay yes true. Cube shapes are everywhere. And reductionism, minimalism and brutalism have their virtues. I am content to die on the hill that Cube is ugly, if my concession is pleasing.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
You're entitled to your opinion.
- tarsinge 3y ago
  As you with your opinion that it is a beautiful construction in the first place. Difference is the Parent’s opinion was suppressed in modern architecture and yours was imposed.