Architecture Gallery: Hits, Misses, and Masterpieces

[rgray222]

We don't often think about it, but architecture is a silent force that shapes our lives and experiences every day. Although it's rarely seen as a cause of happiness or misery, we are surrounded by it constantly, and it has a deep impact on our psyche. It can evoke national pride or national shame. It can be confusing or a source of understanding and joy. Architecture can preserve culture or even create culture; some architecture is meant to tear down culture. It has also been a way to dehumanise and subjugate certain segments of society. Architecture can be wonderful and it ultimately shapes and is shaped by the culture of society.

I am hoping this thread allows us to discuss all types of architecture, not just city skylines, but classical, landscape, furniture, residential, religious, and futurist, to name just a few. If you decide to drop a photo in this thread, please tell say something about it and tell us where and what we are looking at.

I am not sure how the mods want to handle AI subject matter. I believe the prevailing guidelines are that if any subject matter is AI-generated, it must be identified as AI.

Furniture, (mass-produced or one-off handmade furniture, whatever brings out some emotion)

Frank Lloyd Wright Furniture


Skyscrapers

Marina Bay Sands - Singapore
It is the definition of an urban lifestyle. It has everything one could ever need all under one roof: a museum, a shopping mall, a hotel, restaurants, a casino, a resort; you name it.  It can hold as many as 450,00 people at a time and has a world-famous infinity pool, from where you can see the most amazing panoramic view while taking a swim.


Shanghai Skyline - ChinaDiscovery.com


The Courtscraper Manhattan (Getty Images)


Architeture disasters

Huge apartment complex outside of Moscow


The Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in St Louis, shortly after its completion in 1956. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis


Landscape

Japanese Gardens - Kyoto, Japan


Japanese Garden - Tokyo, Japan

[Bill Ryan]

Look at this: (RunningDeer/Paula posted this on the Nuggets of Truth thread back in September)

Antique 18th century Italian hobnail floor safe

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7waE0LsjCyU

[rgray222]

Brutalist Architecture - Designed to survive an atomic blast

33 Thomas Street in NYC is a 550-foot-tall (170 m) windowless skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for its Brutalist architectural style and imposing, fortress-like appearance. Designed by architect John Carl Warnecke and completed in 1974. Its lack of windows is intentional, serving both functional and defensive purposes: it protects sensitive telecommunications machinery from environmental factors and was designed to withstand an atomic blast, with the capacity to shelter up to 1,500 people and remain operational for two weeks after a disaster.

The building has also been reported to serve as a National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance facility, fueling its reputation as a mysterious and secretive hub for intelligence operations.

For those interested, you can read more at - The windowless skyscraper in New York. An Inconvenient US Secret.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

We should perhaps include interior design to this thread! This is the house from the movie Home Alone, made in 1990.

Before and after. Which do you prefer?

For me, top one, the original, every day of the week. A little old-fashioned now, but warm, lived-in, homey. The modernist restyling is bland, cold, colourless, clinical, soulless and cookie-cutter. Like every suburban new-build in existence. You watch some of these home refurbishment shows, and the end product looks almost identical to this, every single time.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Architect Frank Gehry has died aged 96. Today, the BBC hailed him as a "creative force in architecture who was behind some of the world's most intriguing buildings."



In my view, post-modernist grotesquerie. A crime against beauty in each and every case.

The Architecture of Frank Gehry
A leaning glass tower at the Dancing House, Prague


Hotel Marques de Riscal Bodega, Spain


The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao


El Peix d'Or, Barcelona


The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris


Der Neue Zollhof in Düsseldorf

[Bill Ryan]

The images above are so grotesque that I had to post this as remedial therapy for readers eyes.

The Marine Terminal, Sochi, Russia: (on the Black Sea)



https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/166959

[happyuk]

Posted by Mark (Star Mariner) (here)
Architect Frank Gehry has died aged 96. Today, the BBC hailed him as a "creative force in architecture who was behind some of the world's most intriguing buildings."



In my view, post-modernist grotesquerie. A crime against beauty in each and every case.

The Architecture of Frank Gehry
A leaning glass tower at the Dancing House, Prague


Hotel Marques de Riscal Bodega, Spain


The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao


El Peix d'Or, Barcelona


The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris


Der Neue Zollhof in Düsseldorf

These rascals genuinely don't see the toxic effect that ugly, demoralising buildings have on society.

They see themselves as misunderstood geniuses, but remove the Emporer's New Clthes of hype, and what you have are huge, impractical structures that are cold, inhumane, and probably a nightmare to maintain. The architectural equivalent of a raised middle finger.

They not only look temporary, but I think they are temporary. There will come a time, a few generations into the future perhaps, when these things are quietly abandoned, dismantled, or simply fall apart, to be replaced with something more practical and humane.