3 ms·

I don't think re-classifying a widely disliked building as "challenging" is doing anybody any favors. When you build a sidewalk for the public, you don't make i

I don't think re-classifying a widely disliked building as "challenging" is doing anybody any favors. When you build a sidewalk for the public, you don't make it "challenging" by, for example, only making it as wide as a balance beam. A building must suit its purpose, and part of its purpose is to mesh with its surroundings. You shouldn't build a building that looks like Megatron exploded in the middle of a neighborhood of half-timbered buildings, no matter how challenging it may be to the people who look at it every day. And let's not forget, a lot of traditionalist design took into account a world without HVAC and other hacks. If you want energy efficiency, looking to solutions that tackled the problem in a more fundamental way is a good thing, rather than papering over the problem with technology. But you are correct about McMansions twisting the vernacular. The crime I always see is how the garage is, inevitably, front and center. It may be a Neo-Georgian whatever around the front door, but right there next to it is the hallowed automobile temple, like a phylactery to the Saints of petroleum refinery.

ArchitectAnon 3y ago
>And let's not forget, a lot of traditionalist design took into account a world without HVAC and other hacks. If you want energy efficiency, looking to solutions that tackled the problem in a more fundamental way is a good thing, rather than papering over the problem with technology. A lot of these houses were heated with a coal fire in every room, they are completely uninsulated and sitting anywhere near the window in the dead of winter would be very cold! There is something to be said for applying modern passive solar design techniques, insulation and airtightness coupled with heat recovery ventilation. Of course, this does mean you can only have big Georgian style windows on south(ish) facing facades.
prewett 3y ago
> the hallowed automobile temple, like a phylactery to the Saints of petroleum refinery Ha, I'd say this is a completely mixed metaphor, except it is a simile... Phylacteries are used by Jewish men, and contain verses of the Torah inside, which are worn on the head and the arm (following a literal interpretation of "bind these words to your forehead and to your arms"). Jews do not have "saints", they have "tzadikim" (righteous ones). Christian saints, on the other hand, are either venerated with an ikon (an image of the saint) or through a relic (generally a bone of the saint) housed in a reliquary. Although a reliquary is way too small for a garage, so maybe a chapel which houses the reliquary. A "shrine" may also house a reliquary, I'm not sure, I tend to think of "shrine" as being to a non-monotheistic god. Generally Christian houses of worship are not "temples", except for some Pentecostally churches in the 1960s, and Jews only have a "Temple", which would be in Jerusalem if there were one. "like a shrine to the petroleum industry" would be

ArchitectAnon 3y ago

>And let's not forget, a lot of traditionalist design took into account a world without HVAC and other hacks. If you want energy efficiency, looking to solutions that tackled the problem in a more fundamental way is a good thing, rather than papering over the problem with technology. A lot of these houses were heated with a coal fire in every room, they are completely uninsulated and sitting anywhere near the window in the dead of winter would be very cold! There is something to be said for applying modern passive solar design techniques, insulation and airtightness coupled with heat recovery ventilation. Of course, this does mean you can only have big Georgian style windows on south(ish) facing facades.

prewett 3y ago

> the hallowed automobile temple, like a phylactery to the Saints of petroleum refinery Ha, I'd say this is a completely mixed metaphor, except it is a simile... Phylacteries are used by Jewish men, and contain verses of the Torah inside, which are worn on the head and the arm (following a literal interpretation of "bind these words to your forehead and to your arms"). Jews do not have "saints", they have "tzadikim" (righteous ones). Christian saints, on the other hand, are either venerated with an ikon (an image of the saint) or through a relic (generally a bone of the saint) housed in a reliquary. Although a reliquary is way too small for a garage, so maybe a chapel which houses the reliquary. A "shrine" may also house a reliquary, I'm not sure, I tend to think of "shrine" as being to a non-monotheistic god. Generally Christian houses of worship are not "temples", except for some Pentecostally churches in the 1960s, and Jews only have a "Temple", which would be in Jerusalem if there were one. "like a shrine to the petroleum industry" would be