(no subject)

[stormdog]

In Stewart Brand's "How Buildings Learn," he criticizes architecture focused on static appearance in the present moment with no regard to use over time. One of the targets of his criticism is I. M. Pei specifically and many Brutalist works in general. There's a lot of well-considered and well-justified criticism of some of my favorite architecture; enough to make me consider how architectural photography can glorify commodity-value over use-value, promote form over function, and encourage the production of buildings that fail to meet the needs of their users.

Reading critical theory about stuff you care about is really hard.

And I started my current bunch of reading just wanting to know how they're built.

Comments

[sabotabby]

See also every new building in Toronto. Hey, did you know that glass doesn't wear well in a Northern clime?

[stormdog]

A lot of architecture seems to be one size fits all in modern times. But it doesn't.

Other times, it's unique 'one size fits none' buildings.