Discuss - KunstlerCast #5: Starchitects

[Duncan]

KunstlerCast #5: Starchitects

How and why did Seattle build that hideous new public library? asks one listener from that city. James Howard Kunstler tells us how cities get hoodwinked into a status fashion contest to have a museum or library built by one of the celebrity architects of the day. Rem Koolhass, Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and others are deliberately designing these disastrous, anxiety-inducing mothership UFOs in order to mystify people into thinking they're supernaturally brilliant. And then we're stuck with these Gillette Blue Blade-clad fun houses for decades.

Listen to  KunstlerCast_05.mp3 (7.1 MB)

Read KunstlerCast #5: Starchitects - Transcript

[Andy R]

This was a good synopsis of some of the crap we've been treated to in the US, but I would add that a lot of what is visually offensive comes not from "Starchitects" so much as from corporate mills that design our prisons, schools, strip malls etc.

In terms of sheer quantity, there is far more of this crap than there is the Starchitects' monstrosities, so whether it is intended or not, I think taken as a whole, it is more damaging to the collective psyche than the intentional shock pieces some of the big egos have foisted upon us.

[PeakOilNZ]

My wife is an Architect - she loathes all that monster sized building crap.

Prefers small scale - local materials - appropriate response buildings

Problem is clients - one example a couple in their mid late 50's want to build a 550 sq metre house - crazy they will spend all their time getting it cleaned. What the hell do a  couple in their 50's with no kids want a house that big for??

[faraway]

A good example is Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation in New Orleans 9th ward. Never mind the idiocy of rebuilding there in the first place, take a look at what is being proposed to replace what was obliterated ... and this for 'low income' housing.

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

The best thing I can say about Mr Pitt's efforts is he is at least spending his own money on this ghastly stuff.

[Innocent Byproduct]

Architecture is NOT the only industry plagued by "artists" who assume the liberty of narcissistically scracthing some insanely creative itch.







Fine dining is full of bizarre offerings of culiary weirdness.


The "chilled monkey brains" from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.










The fashion world is likewise plagued by haut couture run amok.

Behold an offering from Christian Dior.








The only good thing to be said about silliness in either food or fashion, if that ill-received food is often a waste of maybe $50.00, and gets tossed down the garbage disposer that very evening. And fashion fax pas might cost one pathetic woman a mere few thousand dollars and eventually find their way the nearest Goodwill box by the end of the season.

But bad architecture will haunt evry last resident of  a town or a city for decades, and cost upwards of three million dollars per catastrophe.


Unidentified hideous building. It looks like a typical 1980's glass box coming down with a severe case of psoriasis. If anyone knows where this building is located, please tell me.

[wellingtonjohn]

At least the US is free of the East Asian curse of buildings covered in pink tiles like this:
http://tourguide.sinotour.com/pic129391.html

As a tangent to this topic, has anyone has here heard of the concept of pyschitecture? This is the pyschological effects a piece of architecture has upon the citizens who live in it, and its effect upon the surrounding populace, ie you could say "the pyschitecture of that building is toxic"

I first heard of the concept in a great comicbook series called "Mr X", where an architect sneaks into the gated city he designed in an effort to correct the city and building design after the developers ruined his original designs to the point where the city's residents are slowly going crazy from the toxic pyschic environment.   

[RyCos]

Pink stone or clay tiles in and of themselves aren't bad.  It is the shape of the building that is bad.  It resembles the polygons and angles of the custom foam or plastic casing within a box that modern appliances are sold in.

These few East Asian countries built themselves up selling stuff to the U.S. after World War II.  We had a lot of economic power to blow after world war II.  (and at least Japan and Taiwan weren't communists?)   By outsourcing our production of consumer goods, that freed up labor to become over-credentialed white collar dingbats.  That is why most good architecture stopped being built within ten years after World War II.  Most inflation is the result of "value maximization" of white collar professionals:  not straying from the gold standard(as Ron Paul seems to believe).

[Innocent Byproduct]

At least the US is free of the East Asian curse of buildings covered in pink tiles like this:
http://tourguide.sinotour.com/pic129391.html

I don't mind the pink stuff. I do mind when a building's color choices clash with the nearby buildings and defy the established decorum of the entire district.

I resent when a building refuses to be a PART of the neighborhood, and simply wants to shout as loudly as possible: "Look at ME! I'm more different than any other building in the whole world! I am unique and one of a kind! There will never be another building quite like me! Afterall: it's ALL about ME!!!!!!"

It's ridiculous.

Like this specimen in Prague that MOCKS the established decorum of the surrounding buildings.The architect calls it the "dancing building." Okay, so you can manipulate building materials and make them carry impressive loads in spite of the strange shapes you've rendered them into. Wow. I guess the rest of us are now suitably impressed with your mathematical and geometric prowess. But after we're all done being wowed by your skill with physics, your aethetics leave much to be desired. 

As a tangent to this topic, has anyone has here heard of the concept of pyschitecture? This is the pyschological effects a piece of architecture has upon the citizens who live in it, and its effect upon the surrounding populace, ie you could say "the pyschitecture of that building is toxic"

I first heard of the concept in a great comicbook series called "Mr X", where an architect sneaks into the gated city he designed in an effort to correct the city and building design after the developers ruined his original designs to the point where the city's residents are slowly going crazy from the toxic pyschic environment.   

Never heard of it. But I suspect Mr. Kunstler (a writer and therefore, I assume, someone who has a great love of finding new and cool words) would love to hear about it.

[wellingtonjohn]

I realised after double-checking that I had mispelt the word, it is in fact "pyschetecture" with an "e" .

A google search only got two hits, which is odd, since Id've thought that such a wonderful concept would have much wider currency. I'm sure Mister X writer Dean Motter wouldn't be upset if Mr Kunstler wished to "steal" the word and concept

[auntiegrav]

Architecture is NOT the only industry plagued by "artists" who assume the liberty of narcissistically scracthing some insanely creative itch.

Fine dining is full of bizarre offerings of culiary weirdness.


The "chilled monkey brains" from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Don't bring up the monkey brains as a food item to a sailor unless you want the real story of 'fresh' monkey brains.

Just a point of nausea-avoiding advice.

Hey, nice G.A. pic. Got one from "The Last King of Scotland"?
AG.

[faraway]

The problem is not so much the Starchitects as the patrons who hire them.

They are afflicted by the same hipper-than-thou vanity as are star artists and their art collectors/curators, star clothing and accessory designers and thier fashionistas, etc. etc.

It takes huge money to hire these Starchitects. Of course, huge money also buys Trumpitecture as well as some very good architecture.  But the majority of architects out there are busily designing the 'background' buildings for regular pay. Many of them are doing good solid work, not monuments to their own vanity ... work that will never appear in Architectural Record or get any notice at all from the AIA.

All that aside, the vast majority of buildings are not designed by architects. In fact, they are not designed by anyone at all. They are grafted designs ... cobbled together in bits and parts by grateful CAD jockeys working for a mighty fine (to them) $4/day in Vietnam, India, Philipines, etc.

CAD plus more or less open-source Google SketchUp are the death knell of architecture. Knock-off starchitecture will reign.

[Andy R]

Faraway, you are correct in your assertion that most suburban architecture is contract, boilerplate, meet-the-specs crap.
I apperciate JHK's criticism of the modernist approach, but for most of suburban America, it is the "meet-the-requirements" architecture that is so damaging to the landscape, the community, and the country in general.

We just don't seem to care where it is, how it looks, or how/whether it relates to the community that hosts it.

[DezGecko]

I agree with most of the sentiments provided here, but personally, I would love to see a return to the days when architects, artists, philosophers, authors and scientists were our heros..... as opposed to reality TV stars, sports figures, pop artists, and those famous for being famous.

Cities are made up of various elements and most often the elements comprise eclectic contributions from a huge variety of sources, influences and generations.  I don't see anything wrong with the addition of absurd architecture or starchitecture into our cities.....as long as it doesn't overwhelm the grander scope.  Frank Gehry buildings look out of place where ever you put them, but I would argue that those buildings and others like it are just liveable/workable forms of sculpture.  Do the Calder or Picasso sculptures in downtown Chicago actually fit in???  They would suck if they did!!   This is a place for just about anything for the mundane.........work that looks as though it were designed by a computer.  I don't see Hal2000 coming up with the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the Calatrave museum addition in Milwaukee, or Fallingwater.   Maybe LeCorbu was really a Hal2000???

[Duncan]

Speaking of starchitects. There is going to be an exhibition dedicated to the out-of-this-world buildings of John Lautner at the UCLA Hammer Museum:

Between Earth and Heaven
July 13 - October 12, 2008
Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner





More photos

[kevinm]

Speaking of starchitects. There is going to be an exhibition dedicated to the out-of-this-world buildings of John Lautner at the UCLA Hammer Museum:

Between Earth and Heaven
July 13 - October 12, 2008
Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner





More photos

Doesn't this belong in Eyesores?