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by menloparkbum 6558 days ago
Philipe Starck is not a modernist. He's not even an architect! He's an interior designer. His work has nothing to do with the likes of Le Corbusier or Van der Rohe. Your timelines aren't even right. The modernists all died in the late 1960s. Starck didn't become popular until the late 1980s. Calling him a crook because he's associated with the modernist school of architecture (which he isn't) is utterly beyond incorrect... it doesn't even make sense. In fact, it so doesn't make sense, I feel like I'm the victim of a clever troll. If that's the case - touche.
2 comments
pg 6558 days ago
He's not just an interior designer. He does design physical objects.

But you're right. Starck is about as far as you could get from totalitarian city planning. Which incidentally would have been just as bad with or without modernism. Speer's Berlin would have been at least as nasty as Le Corbusier's Paris.

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peakok 6558 days ago
Starck designed several buildings wich are famous in France because of the complaints of the people who have to work inside (one has a facade with no windows at all, for "design" purpose). He designed many properties and led a project wich theme was "One house for everybody" where he designed the cheapest house possible so that "everyone could have one", packed in some residences, and sponsored by the governement. You couldn't actually get more totalitarian than this.

You don't hear a lot about this side of his work because most of them were fiascos, a french TV (Canal +) even dedicated an investigation to the building he designed, because of all the people complaining. I tought it was obvious that Starck wasn't an architect stricto sensu, but "Architect", "Designer", "Urbanist" and even "Modernist" are just labels, the only thing that matters is what people actually do.

Ask the people who have to deal with his creations on a daily basis, or read about these fiascos. This will be more interesting than playing with labels.

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herdrick 6558 days ago
Fine, but he's certainly from the "resistance is useless" meta-school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asahi_Beer_Hall
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