According to Wiktionary, “philistine” is an adjective meaning “lacking in appreciation for art or culture.” I think that falls far short of the definition. I forget where I heard it, but the most able assessment of a philistine I’ve ever heard is someone who knows the difference between beautiful and ugly, and deliberately chooses ugly.
It’s a philistine culture, now, top to bottom. People don’t lack appreciation. They spurn it. Girls know coloring their hair with Pepto-Bismol and putting a ring in their nose is ugly. That’s why they do it. When abstract standards of right and wrong go out the window, standards of etiquette and taste go out with the same bathwater.
I know I’ve mentioned it here several times, but Frank Gehry has done more harm to the human race than psoriasis. He knows his structures are ugly, no matter what he says publicly. That’s the point. Believe me, I know it’s hard to make a beautiful, sturdy, useful building of almost any size. Guys like Gehry understand it’s much easier to make an ugly one, and say, I meant to do that, where’s my check? It’s hideous. Ain’t it grand?
I’ve likewise pilloried the architectural style that makes Gehry the Larry Fine of the drafting table: Brutalism. I could paste in a long description of Brutalist Architecture, but I’ll save us all some time and sum it up thusly: Commies love concrete. Brutalist architecture doesn’t just spurn the wants and desires of people who enter or pass by their abominations. Brutalist architecture denies the essential humanity of humanity itself. It is the design motif of the prison, the abattoir, the death camp, the Stasi office, the nuclear fuel dump, and various colleges that produce students who like to bomb road races, like UMass Dartmouth.
So Boston City Hall is the ugliest building in the world, maybe. I can live with that. The government got big, and the people got small, so the kind of statement it makes is inevitable. But I can’t stand by and see anyone praise Brutalist churches and get away with it. Here dezeen magazine, which has to be dezeen to be believed:
Sacred Modernity showcases “unique beauty and architectural innovation” of brutalist churches
It showcases, something, alright, the same way overweight plumbers showcase things when they’re crouching in front of your sink.
Here are two examples. I chose them at random, basically. They’re all equally bad ideas, like speed dating at a carnival sideshow:
I’d mention the first one is plagiarized from the torture scene from Brazil, but what’s the point? They’d probably give the architect a raise if they hear that. The second, a concrete Tetris game gone bad, looks like the plans for a maximum security prison that got wrinkled in a paper jam in the fax machine, and they built it that way anyway.
I’m not disappointed in the architects. They’re jerks. Jerks gotta jerk. It’s the churches that paid for these monstrosities that should be ashamed of themselves. But then again, those churches have all lost their nerve and don’t even mention society’s obligations to each other, or to posterity anymore. Let’s look at a snippet from the article praising these sacred seawalls gone rogue, and see if we can grok where they’re coming from, man:
“In essence, the experience of encountering brutalist churches often involves a transformation from scepticism to appreciation, as individuals are confronted with the unique beauty and architectural innovation that these structures represent.”
Yup. Even he knows it’s crap, but bangs on his brain to convince himself to pretend it isn’t. Philistines gotta philistine.
7 Responses
Your line, “…a concrete Tetris game gone bad, looks like the plans for a maximum security prison that got wrinkled in a paper jam in the fax machine, and they built it that way anyway” had me laughing out loud this evening, a thing which is hard to do right now since gout has swelled my ankle to a purple/red balloon. A wee bit tender (please don’t let that feather land on it), and that tends to cut down on the laughing quotient for the day.
But that (church?) immediately reminded me of something else:
https://www.architecturalrecord.com/ext/resources/Issues/2017/April/good-design-is-good-business/Orchestra-Hall/1704-Good-Design-is-Good-Business-KPMB-Architects-Minneapolis-Orchestra-Hall-Renewal-01.jpg?t=1490725387&width=1080
At least at Orchestra Hall they had the excuse of trying to cover up the horribly bland square box interior with all of those squarish thingies (a technical term) which were inteded to improve the acoustics of the box they built in the first place. It worked, since it’s not a horrifically echoing box, simply a mildly echoing box. I had the opportunity to listen to Jean-Pierre Rampal demonstrate part of what he could do with a flute and chamber orchestra there once, and it sounded very good from a very bad (student/inexpensive) seat.
But bare concrete has to echo like a son of a gun, and I wonder what a sermon sounds like in there. Maybe hang a few tapestries…
“Maybe hang a few tapestries…”
Maybe hang a few architects.
If it were only the wokey-dokey churches building these ghastly echo chambers, I’d say the congregations were just getting what they asked for, good and hard. But this Philistine assault on the senses is endemics, from warehouse sized grocery stores with roaring coolers and screechy PA systems, to “high energy” eateries with hard walls, blaring muzik, and open kitchens where, from the sounds of it, the meat course is being freshly slaughtered. I’d go outside for some peace and quiet, but in town I’m immediately assaulted with a cavalcade of booming rap crap car stereos being promenaded by broke-ass gangsta wannabees in lowriders and big-butt pickups.
‘the Larry Fine of the drafting table”
Why you gotta be hatin’ on Larry? Larry never started anything.
Gehry is the Moe Howard of architecture. Malice all the way.
I always hate to argue with the customers, but I think Gehry might be closer to a Shemp.
I grew up in a nice middle class town in So. California. Close to Lockheed we quite a few “new”engineers in our little town. Guys who had come home from WWII, got a degree and went to work designing airplanes. We were peaceful, almost all white. The LA River runs through my old neighborhood. That is where some of us kids used to go and play after school. Running up and down the steep sides, jumping from rock to rock–never touching the water. It was concrete. All concrete. I see now that recently there has been an effort to make some parts of the river into little islands and parks with various greenery and little trails. OMG! I was so thrilled to see these efforts to improve the stark concrete river of my childhood. Then he came along–Gehry has been chosen to do whatever he feels like to my river and it appears that I am not the only one complaining!
https://la.urbanize.city/post/frank-gehry-designed-entryway-breaks-ground-la-river-canoga-park
Gehry neglected to add the Arbeit Macht Frei sign to finish it off properly.