Architects you greatly dislike

[JMGA196]

Well, the title explains itself

[JMGA196]

Frank Gehry

This guy shouldn't even be called an architect. His buildings have no reason to exist in the way they do. No shape, no form, no order, nothing. Most of his work is simply horrible, although I do have to accept I consider 8 Spruce Street and Fondation Louis Vuitton quite interesting.

[ThatOneGuy]

I can't think of any single architect I truly dislike. Only specific projects, maybe. What I hate is firms that care more about profit than style or lasting quality, and use nasty cheap/fake materials that guarantee the buildings will only last like 20 or 30 years.

[ThatOneGuy]

Actually, I remember some I dislike:
Gene Kaufman and Peter Poon. They consistently use cheap ugly materials and pay little attention to architectural detail.

[mapece]

there are many

Adolf Loos (I can't understand what people find in those white cubes or in totally arbitrary ideas that ornaments are a crime).
This is everything I don't like:




Gehry, already mentioned
Libeskind

and truly a lot of "ironic" postmodern architecture and deconstructivism.

[JMGA196]

I was about to post about both Loos and Libeskind. Loos single handedly converted the architecture profession into a "anybody can do whatever they want however stupid it might be" activity. Other than Looshaus in Vienna, which is relatively good, all his work is disgusting.

[ThatOneGuy]

What? Loos never says anyone can just do whatever they want. That's like the exact opposite of what he said. And he was very much for natural ornamentation found in the materials (the patterns found in marble, wood, etc) and for ornamentation that was culturally derived, not superfluous.

Loos wrote in 1924:
"I affirmed twenty-six years ago that the evolution of humanity would cause ornament to disappear from functional objects, an evolution which would allow its ineluctable and logical path…But I never thought like the purists who pushed this reasoning to the absurd, that ornament should be systematically abolished. It is only where the passage of time makes it disappear that it cannot be reborn."

[erbse]

Architects I despise:

Le Corbusier.
Egon Eiermann.
Daniel Libeskind.
Thom Mayne.
Peter Zumthor.
Albert Speer jr.
Rafael Vinoly.
Rem Koolhaas.


Most of their work is simply disgusting, inhuman, egomaniac and highly disturbing, often with no respect to their surrounding world.

I'd also add some (sadly) influential city planners like Rudolf Hillebrecht, but perhaps we'd need another thread for that.

[JMGA196]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

What? Loos never says anyone can just do whatever they want. That's like the exact opposite of what he said. And he was very much for natural ornamentation found in the materials (the patterns found in marble, wood, etc) and for ornamentation that was culturally derived, not superfluous.

Loos wrote in 1924:
"I affirmed twenty-six years ago that the evolution of humanity would cause ornament to disappear from functional objects, an evolution which would allow its ineluctable and logical path…But I never thought like the purists who pushed this reasoning to the absurd, that ornament should be systematically abolished. It is only where the passage of time makes it disappear that it cannot be reborn."

I'm not saying he actually meant that, I was saying that's the way it has been interpreted.

On the other hand, I think the only building in which he applied his theories correctly is Looshaus in Vienna.



Then we see stuff like this... That literally looks like a world war prison. Most of his work is completely unaesthetic.



One thing I do recognize about Loos is that (as it was relatively common back in his days), he actually stopped and thought about his view on architecture. He made tried to support his views and design theories, contrary to modern architects who are mostly just guys that learned how to use structures and materials, and can't go further than that.

[ThatOneGuy]

I like that house, actually. And I'd say his buildings are very aesthetic, especially the Villa Karma, which is a masterpiece.

I can also blame classicism, and especially New Classical architects like Robert A.M. Stern for the rise of tacky nouveau-rich McMansions. They were interpreted by McMansion developers as decoration automatically meaning 'good architecture.' It would be fallacious, however, because that's not what classical architects or Robert A.M. Stern taught.

This building by Robert Stern is quite nice.


However it could easily slip into McMansion territory by knock-off developers.

[JMGA196]

Of course, there will always be good and bad architects, and cheap developers.

Here's an example of an amazing new classical architect, Charles Hilton:



You can see it has little ornamentation. I can only see the dentils in the roofs and the architrave around the windows.

RAMSA is probably the most famous, but there are several other new classical architects that deserve more recognition, like Hilton himself, Roman & Williams, or Peter Pennoyer.

I don't know... This kind of discussions are always a big conflict for me. On one hand I understand what Loos meant and (again) I see it perfectly in some buildings like Looshaus or much newer buildings and architects (like Norman Foster, one of my favorites). But on the other hand I simply feel insulted to spend 5, 10 or 15 years completely dedicated to learn about architecture and materials, and methods, and construction, and structures, etc. and then find stuff like this been called a great example of modern architecture.



I mean, what's the point of the architecture profession if it's going to come down to white cubes with a few openings for windows? Not following any patterns, no symmetry, no order, irregular shapes in some cases... It's really frustrating if you ask me.

[mapece]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

I like that house, actually. And I'd say his buildings are very aesthetic, especially the Villa Karma, which is a masterpiece.

I don't like it, but it's probably one of his works that I can tolerate, way better than other works.
But when I see stuff like this



I wonder how it's possible that someone has taken this guy seriously.

The strange thing is that it's possible to find a huge project never realised that I find way more interesting that everything actually built by him
http://www.quinterna.org/rivista/09/Image25.jpg

[monkeyronin]

Arquitectonica. I don't know how they're getting commissions around the world lately - just about everything they've produced has been cheap, uninspired garbage that could blend into the background of any suburb. They've got three projects on the go here in Toronto and they're all contenders for the worst development I've seen in a decade - why developers go with them when they could hire a third-rate local architect for half the price and still get better results is beyond me.

[JMGA196]

Horrible. Reminds me of Bjarke Ingels, who is absolutely overrated and makes me wanna puke.

[AndyWarhol]

I actually like Ghery despite the uglyness of some of his works.

Ghery symbolize pretty well the Rebelliousness an artist should have to confront what is established. He inspire me somehow.

[AndyWarhol]

As for the thread question, i don't entirely dislike any famous architect, there are just ones that have more appeling projects for me than others.

Herzog and De meuron has some really interesting buildings but i definetely dont like their stadiums:

[JMGA196]

Yeah, I don't like their stadiums either, although the Stade de Bordeaux looks great in some shots.

[WhiteGerbera]

Thank you for starting this thread! For architects I greatly dislike, I don't even regard/respect them as architects. So I don't have any names to add. The traits of architects I disdain are:

- Commercial firms with ugly/mediocre designs pretending to be The Masters.
- Those-who-can't steal credits of design architects.
- Lazy, irresponsible architects who dump responsibilities to consultants and contractors.

[Zaz965]

I don't dislike imitation if the building has a good design
bank of china ningbo by som, it looks like shanghai tower

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...1440231&page=4

[Zaz965]

the bad imitation for me: al kazim towers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Kazim_Towers