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by p0nce 2584 days ago
When concrete was introduced it was considered highly elegant.
1 comments

I think concrete is elegant, myself. I suspect a lot of the Brutalist architecture that's considered horrid today will be re-evaluated much more positively in a couple of centuries. It was, in its way, a way of looking forward and trying to create something timeless, which is a lot more ambitious in terms of human spirit than the anonymous glass throwaways that dominate modern architecture.
It's easy to have opinions on things, but that doesn't mean these opinions have any substance. If modern architects choose glass buildings maybe there is more to it than just our immediate reaction.
Stewart Brand said the three enemies of all buildings are time, money, and water. He renounced is own faith in geodesic domes because they introduce unnecessary seams, especially as they get older and settle - seams that leak water.

Look at a glass building. Count the seams. Ask how serious they are about architecture that lasts.