some of the older stuff has some class, but how often is anything allowed to get old? most buildings looked like they were made to fall over after 50 years, and a good thing too, aesthetically speaking.
it's product-ism gone totally bananas, make money ripping it down, more putting it up, rinse, repeat.
perhaps this will change after they finish clearcutting every tree in the place. ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
America is a relatively young country. I mean, it's hardly our fault the Mississippi is not lined with castles or that cute narrow medieval streets aren't found leading to our city centers. It's not that things are not allowed to get old. They've just only been built recently!
Also, I've just been reading this amazing book about Muslim girls in the Paris suburbs. I'm sorry, but these areas look no better than the "projects" in America.
That said, I am struck on a daily basis by how modern much of Europe looks compared to America. There is a modern architecture and design aesthetic in Europe that is hardly so ubiquitous America. Living in Chicago, even surrounded by sky-scrapers, it sometimes seems like a land time forgot. Living in America c.2009 feels a little like living in Russia c.1999 in that respect.
I don't know. The suburbs are ugly and generally soul-destroying. But I'm not sure "most of American architecture" falls into that category. Or that there is even some homogeneous thing that is "American architecture." Architecture in Santa Fe, New Orleans, Chicago, Boston, Charleston, Miami, Santa Barbara, St. Louis, rural Vermont... it's really diverse actually. It's their crap between the cities and small towns that needs bulldozing, I think. Though I could easily say the same thing about Russia. The city centers are great, the countryside is great, the impersonal, dilapidated housing that large swaths of the population reside in makes you wanna gouge your eyes out. The same is probably true of most places where there is a large, relatively new population in need of cheap housing. And let's pause for a moment to consider how much of the sturdy, built-to-last, stunningly beautiful, very old, very impressive architecture not just in Europe, but throughout the world, was built on the backs of slaves, peasants, funded by colonialism, wars, etc.
Just sayin'. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
these areas look no better than the "projects" in America
They are no better. They have a lot in common.
this amazing book about Muslim girls in the Paris suburbs
Is the book about specifically religious girls of the Muslim faith, or is "Muslim" used as a general term?
Here's a link to the book. Here's the photographer's website. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
episode | I Am
the worldwide negative trend posed by media coverage of Muslims is too often designated as an environment of social marginalization
(not sure about "designated" there) but one could add "of fear".
The photos are good. And ethnically varied.
