The attacks on the U.S. Capitol building early this month are an important reminder of why great Americans, from Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, see architecture as a crucial component of our system of government.
A popular meme format at the moment is to juxtapose two pictures with the caption ‘How it started / How it’s going’. The first image shows the pride, and the second shows the fall. It’s a modern format for an extremely ancient narrative arc: hubris and nemesis. On the night of 6 January 2021, a version of this meme circulated online with two images of the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The first showed it in sunshine, decked with red, white and blue banners for a presidential inauguration, and looking spruce. The second showed it as it appeared that evening, in the twilight, wreathed in smoke, its terraces overrun with belligerent crowds, its balustrades ragged with partisan flags. Against the gloaming, an orange glow can be seen within the Capitol dome – just the building’s normal lighting, normally one of its more appealing features, suggestive of a lantern or beacon for democracy; but in the smoke, amid the obvious anger and chaos, it took
A collective led by author and Living Architecture founder Alain de Botton has attacked the dispiriting, chaotic and distasteful architecture of urban environments in an essay titled Why is the Modern World So Ugly?
The article published on The School of Life organisation s website states that our ancestors would be shocked at the horrors of modern architecture. One of the great generalisations we can make about the modern world is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, an ugly world, said the essay, which was anonymously written by a member of De Botton s The School of Life collective. If we were to show an ancestor from 250 years ago around our cities and suburbs, they would be amazed at our technology, impressed by our wealth, stunned by our medical advances – and shocked and disbelieving at the horrors we had managed to build, continued the article.
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Outgoing president Donald Trump The President has signed another Executive Order (Executive Order 13967 of December 18, 2020, Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture) which basically says that all new Federal buildings must be beautiful which seems to suggest that they will be built in a Greek or Roman style and there will be a lot of columns. This is probably, but might not be, the most stupid executive order ever signed. Yes, Roman building as pretty but the best known, the Coliseum is starting to lose its glamour and a lot of bricks.
Docomomo US responds and opposes Trump s new executive order for classical and traditional architecture archinect.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archinect.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.