arkitrave :: log

You only show your own narrowness when you elect to hate something because it doesn’t fit your definition of “art” or “architecture.” I just found this site ranting against “hated architecture.” Among the lucky recipients of this award are the Getty Center in LA, the Experience Music Project in Seattle (Gehry) and Koolhaas’s new Seattle Public Library (an amazing project, in my opinion). Some ranting about the human scale and context I guess. If these folks had their way, everything we build would have columns and be marble or brick, and the heck with an architect’s self-expression or right to be an artist. You don’t have to use the building, you don’t have to like the building, but don’t try to tell me it should be dismantled and sold for scrap metal simply because it doesn’t “fit in the city.” For the love of Imhotep, the city is a conglomeration. It is an organic entity. It doesn’t, and shouldn’t have a master plan guiding everything that is built. I have news for you - you don’t fit in the city. Your shoes are all wrong.

To be fair, they also decry Wal-Mart and developer houses, which contrary to the other works they are maligning, are not designed, are not created with a concept other than profit, and are stamped by architects who choose to sell themselves to the lowest bidder on the street corner. I applaud them for that, but can we differentiate between art you don’t care for personally and crap?

I guess I’m saying that architects are artists. We are not just builders. We are in this for self-expression, much like painters, musicians, or sculptors. We also have to satisfy clients, which the aforementioned projects do (Seattle is very happy with Koolhaas, from what I hear). What makes cities exciting is that people choose to break the mold and do something different.

I’m not saying every building should be something like Koolhaas’s library, but certainly a city as diverse and exciting as Seattle can have a few buildings that stand out from their context.

Go move to Celebration, Architecture Hate Page People.