Ridiculous Modern Architecture?

[JoetheLion]

Maybe I am too old for this (not really), but am I the only one who doesn't find this an art? To me at looks both ridiculous and uncomfortable at the same time. Especially the OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) building looks like something from Teletubbies or other brainwashing show for kids.

Only this one looks like a room from a good sci-fi (perhaps like something from THX 1138):

 

[CraigRT]

Do not like. Do not care about art factor.
That is what we have these artsy people for..

 

[IronWing]

Form took function out back and beat the snot out of it. The artist (architect?) was so enamored of those clean white walls that surface conduit had to be added to hook up the electronics. Maybe art students shouldn't spend so much time with those foam core models.

 

[zerocool84]

Do not like. Do not care about art factor.
That is what we have these artsy people for..

This

It doesn't bother me at all, anyone can call anything art. Hell, didn't we have a thread about performing art where some girl peed in front of a group of people?

 

[jaedaliu]

This

It doesn't bother me at all, anyone can call anything art. Hell, didn't we have a thread about performing art where some girl peed in front of a group of people?

Didn't see that thread.

But, I think art is meant to cause an emotional reaction. Seems like they both succeeded. It can be tough to enjoy more modern art.

 

[Possessed Freak]

The harsh angles, starkness, etc. As a living space, I would hate it. As a working space, I would hate it. As a showroom for whatever (art, architecture, cars, microwaves, whatever) it is acceptable.

 

[Exterous]

Holy shit - the OCAD entry hall looks so much like my junior year design project its not even funny! Light air airy, glass heavy front entrance transitioning to a heavy concrete wall with the open space between defined by a spiral staircase to the second floor. Jesus...I even had something similar to the Tabletop on the outside. I'm going to have to get my drawings out again...

Anyway - I don't see too many blows to functionality in these and find some of them very interesting. Obviously I like the entry hall since I designed something that looks pretty damn similar. I just generally don't like when they put circles in everything. So damn hard to use circles efficiently.

The artist (architect?) was so enamored of those clean white walls that surface conduit had to be added to hook up the electronics.

I'd be willing to bet that was intentional

 

[jagec]

Didn't see that thread.

But, I think art is meant to cause an emotional reaction. Seems like they both succeeded. It can be tough to enjoy more modern art.

Seems that they got their priorities backwards...art may cause an emotional reaction, but causing an emotional reaction doesn't necessarily make something art. First you have to make something worthy, and peoples' emotional responses will follow.

Otherwise I can see some very creative road rage defenses being used in court.

 

[SlitheryDee]

In most things I find beauty to increase with function, but I can appreciate some strangeness in architecture. The most functional building would likely be one that's made of a bunch of featureless cubes on the inside and a featureless slab on the outside. It would be predictably sturdy and wouldn't waste space on needless features, but it would suck a little bit of the life out of everyone who had to work in it every day. I look at something a bit weird, like those twisty staircases, and I wonder what it would be like to walk through them. What did they have to do to make them safe? No one is thinking that when they look at a Wal-mart or random government office building. There's something to be said for making things interesting every now and then.

 

[phucheneh]

I was prepared to get a raging hate-on, but I actually like the stuff on that page, aside from the shit outside of that OCAD place. That's a fucking stupid-looking igloo you built there, Canada.

 

[Sheep]

I'd take everything on that page over ugly-ass eyesore 60's and 70's style cube buildings. These are all public areas designed to stand out so I'd say they qualify as art, as opposed to the girl peeing mentioned above.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I actually sort of like the OCAD entry area with the super high ceilings. It could use some color and warm tones though to make it more inviting.

Galleria Italia looks awesomely awesome.

 

[biostud]

They need a better tessellation engine.

 

[unokitty]

Maybe I am too old for this (not really), but am I the only one who doesn't find this an art?

You're not the only one.

Uno

 

[Maximilian]

amidoinitrite?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Some of those are actually kinda cool. I thought this one was funny though:

It's like if they completely forgot to add stairs as part of the plan when they built that section so it was like "oh shiii... wait, just put them outside!"

 

[sushiwarrior]

This just in - art is subjective. Thanks OP, I never would have figured.

 

[bryanl]

Architecture doesn't have to be good or even function at all to be praised.

 

[zinfamous]

Maybe I am too old for this (not really), but am I the only one who doesn't find this an art? To me at looks both ridiculous and uncomfortable at the same time. Especially the OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) building looks like something from Teletubbies or other brainwashing show for kids.

Only this one looks like a room from a good sci-fi (perhaps like something from THX 1138):

[pic]

To belabor an old yet notoriously stubborn argument: you are responding to this design. It is causing feelings of discomfort, of dislike. I wouldn't say it is all-out visceral, but you are posting about it. You are taking the time to find a pic and link it and comment about it.

Thoughts of this design are consuming your mental faculties, they are taking up time with which you could use towards work or any other number of activities.

Congratulations, for you are being exposed to art, and your mind is now all the more limber for it. No one said you had to "like" the experience.

 

[phucheneh]

Some of those are actually kinda cool. I thought this one was funny though:

[pic]

It's like if they completely forgot to add stairs as part of the plan when they built that section so it was like "oh shiii... wait, just put them outside!"

The one on the right is lame, but I like the one on the left. The craziness is much better executed there.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Boston City Hall looks like it was designed by an anarchist architect when asked to express her feelings on government.

 

[ultimatebob]

Galleria Italia looked pretty cool to me.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Boston City Hall looks like it was designed by an anarchist architect when asked to express her feelings on government.

Needs more chains and cameras. Don't ask what the chains are for. D:

 

[Kadarin]

Not sure if I'd call it modern, but I'd go with the Sagrada Familia:

Looks like a goddamned termite mound.

 

[JoetheLion]

To belabor an old yet notoriously stubborn argument: you are responding to this design. It is causing feelings of discomfort, of dislike. I wouldn't say it is all-out visceral, but you are posting about it. You are taking the time to find a pic and link it and comment about it.

Thoughts of this design are consuming your mental faculties, they are taking up time with which you could use towards work or any other number of activities.

Congratulations, for you are being exposed to art, and your mind is now all the more limber for it. No one said you had to "like" the experience.

I disagree. You can be exposed to stuff like Justin Bieber, Nickelback, Rebecca Black or new escapades of absurd celebrities like Kardashians, but that doesn't make any of it an art. Your argument sounds like everything I can take my time to think about should be considered an art. I don't want to claim that I have a perfect taste and I know the difference between design and functionality, yet I find most of these buildings and interiors in these pictures uninventive when it comes to origin of their design. I know that a gallery, conservatory, university or house have different functions and space for experimentation, but that doesn't mean that each of these experiments are original or successful in fulfilling their role. There has to be some merit to it.

If I look at music for example, I know that I had to grow up to like some music or to understand some paintings (even though I like surrealism since I was a little child). My problem isn't that it's not build in Gothic, Baroque, Victorian or other classical style. For me OCAD is just another level of cold, uninviting of socialist realism and brutalism which dominated eastern Europe and was hardly ever design to have any real aesthetic merits.