The best architectural ornamentation?

[ThatOneGuy]

And the architecture taliban strikes again.

[Paper Ninja]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

Architecture should be imposing on overwhelming, not be in some "dialogue" wiith people using/passing/seeing buildings.

So something like this is correct, but something like this is wrong?

[Paper Ninja]

Originally Posted by Hcrayg

http://diogenesmarcondes.files.wordp...i-da-india.jpg

This is what I think.... Very simple

That building is essentially one giant ornament upon the face of the earth.


http://india-tour.us/india-places/lotus-temple/

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-5917...e-carving.html

[Paper Ninja]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

And the architecture taliban strikes again.

are referring to yourself?

[alexandru.mircea]

Some interesting points above on the role of ornament in the context of contemporary architecture. Myself I would like to note that while buildings have lost, these days, the ornament in relief (sculpted, plastered, etc.), some have gained the use of colour as an ornament. Think of Torre Agbar or the building bellow that I've just seen in a post here:



(source)

Originally Posted by indosky

Part 2


image hosted on flickr

Colour as ornament isn't new at all, many monuments that we now know as "white" were partly of fully coloured, like Greek temples or mediaeval churches.

[CNB30]

I love it when people repaint ornament in many gentrified american cities these days


In my opinion, buildings cant get much better than that

[CNB30]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

And the architecture taliban strikes again.

The boring is beautiful "Taliban" have already struck. I'm not advocating for the ornament cramming of every building in the world (though that would be nice), like they are advocating for the stripping of beauty and character from buildings.

We were having a peaceful little thread showing the types of art we like displayed on our buildings, and the "Taliban" came and blew up our thread.

[Paper Ninja]

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nerradk/6692221165/

http://dkphotos.me/2012/01/18/albany.../img_9800-hdr/
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/happycuties/3818984173/

[CNB30]

I was in Albany a few years ago and got to see that staircase. Absolutely beautiful.

[CNB30]

I love some of the cast Iron ornamentation in lower Manhattan

image hosted on flickr

[cnapan]

Originally Posted by Kiboko

The best ornamentation is no ornamentation. Most of the time i see the ornamentation on ceilings as unnecessary clutter which should be removed. I'd rather see a thoughtful designed ceiling, with the spreading of natural and unnatural light as its main target.

Like this beautiful modern ceiling in the Louvre:

Two points...

1) There is ornamentation in that design. Why have slats at all. They could have just had a transparent flat ceiling... So by minimalist standards, it is incredibly fussy.

2) This ceiling will never be one of the ceilings which tourists seek out. The reason is simple. Art. Any fool can draw a box. Any fool can build a flat featureless wall. They are boring. They say nothing. This ceiling says nothing. They come to see the pictures lit by the ceiling. And that is all.

What you do find sometimes is a lack of ornamentation being used to successfully contrast with - and draw attention to - existing ornamentation. A good example of this is the pyramids in the Louvre. By themselves they would be anodyne and bland. Their success lies in the interesting contrast they create between the simple glass geometry in contrast with the ornate stone facade of the museum. The same technique is used in more traditional building, with areas of simplicity contrasting with areas of richer ornamentation...

Ornamentation may be seen applied to a structure - or, as is occasionally seen from the work of some great modern architects, the ornamentation is the structure. Take Calatrava or Hadid. Their buildings are a light-year from the fascist ideals of minimalism, and though expensive to build, are a delight, and far likelier to survive intact for a century as they aren't just enclosed spaces. They speak to us because art is about humanity.

[cnapan]

Originally Posted by CNB30

Why did this thread have to go from people posting a bunch of beautiful buildings, to a bunch of tasteless anti-ornament freaks.

They're here to remind us precisely why the architectural profession has largely lost the ability to create spaces we like living in. I'm not talking about the "grand projets", but the ordinary vernacular buildings most of us have to live or work in.

That isn't to say that there aren't some great modern buildings going up, but in my experience of buildings from the 20th century in Europe and North America, the vast majority of what goes up now has less appeal than the 'older stuff', and a part of the reason for this is the poisonous and irrational hatred for ornament or art in buildings.

[alexandru.mircea]

^ Very good point about using contemporary as contrast to classic. I'll disagree about museums, though, many people are interested also in the full experience of visiting a museum, not just in simply seeing the artifacts. It matters when a museum is in a building that is designed to interfere with the viewing experience, like at the Pompidou, or is excitingly developed in a reconverted building (like the Tate Modern), or when it is in a forward looking (architecturally) building like those by Zaha Hadid (Riverside, MaXXI) or Frank Gehry (Bilbao Guggenheim) and others. These aspects are integral part of what makes these museums so successful.

[ThatOneGuy]

It's called the architecture taliban because they call people who disagree with them 'freaks', as if they are infidels for having a different opinion or taste. And they put a jihad on modern styles and hate everyone who likes them. I think classical ornamentation is beautiful, but that modern, classy minimalist buildings are better. What's so bad, am I still a freak?

[CNB30]

Im not declaring a jihad on modern styles, I do appreciate them, but I just disagree with some of the modernist philosophies. If i was declaring a Jihad, I would be talking about wanting to tear down every modernist structure around. I am just disagreeing with certain individuals on this this thread, and dislike the removal of ornament does not mean I am some sort of Architecture taliban.

I just think its crazy that someone would find this



to be architectually superior to this

[Paper Ninja]

Originally Posted by CNB30

I just think its crazy that someone would find this



to be architectually superior to this

eh.. I think a comparison to this might be more fitting..

image hosted on flickr


http://www.flickr.com/photos/31068574@N05/4814645907/

[Suburbanist]

This tick is very old: whomever doesn't agree with one's aesthetic preferences is a "fascist", an "idiot" or some other pejorative designation of choice. That goes also with the worn-out photo-war trick in which someone appeals to some sort of universal (thus non mathematically/analytically describable) "taste" that would render any further discussion of the subject (ornamentation, in the case, but it could be height, density, clustering of buildings, volume etc) useless because "everybody knows what is best, just look at it".

[Cyrus]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

It's called the architecture taliban because they call people who disagree with them 'freaks', as if they are infidels for having a different opinion or taste. And they put a jihad on modern styles and hate everyone who likes them. I think classical ornamentation is beautiful, but that modern, classy minimalist buildings are better. What's so bad, am I still a freak?

It is interesting that you use the words "Taliban", "Jihad", ... to describe what you want to say, but the problem is that you yourself think like the Taliban, ornamentation means adding beauty to something, of course you can have different opinion or taste about the ornamentation, but you can't say no beauty should be added to a modern building! Taliban don't say classical anastole is better than modern fashion hairstyle or vice versa but they say people should not adorn themselves at all.

[CNB30]

Here is some great Victorian design on display at the VMFA (ironically in an ultra modern building).

[Paper Ninja]

http://mysticsartnouveau.blogspot.com/




http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palais_(Paris)

http://www.jetlife.co/2012/11/09/red...test-in-paris/