>You are comparing cathedrals with regular living/working places. The house i'm renovating was built by lower class people now dead. The fireplace has some mar

>You are comparing cathedrals with regular living/working places. The house i'm renovating was built by lower class people now dead. The fireplace has some marvelous emaile work. My grandparents on one side were factory workers (glass cutter and cigar roller specifically) and are still ridiculously frugal beyond belief due to their experiences in the world wars. Their living room has lovely cornishes, etc. Their fire places have art of goats and nature on em. The modern equivalent of that fireplace is a comparatively ridiculously expensive box with 0 ornamentation. On the other hand the expensive new builts now go 2 ways with some harking back to old pastoral styles but with less detail and the other ones are cubic featureless boxes inspired by american flat roofed villas but without the wealth to take it much further. I could go on and on about the death of detail in design and elsewhere and i know it's just annecdotes but it's to be found absolutely everywhere. Not just the cathedrals and major buildings of the state and the rich.