Two major art and social critics have written substantial articles on contemporary architecture.
Theodore Dalrymple has written about the concrete vision that Le Corbusier had for his cities, including erasing existing ones (Paris was on his list!) to make room for his bleak designs. And Roger Scruton in his article "The High Cost of Ignoring Beauty" writes how contemporary architects aim to stand out with their eccentric and outrageous designs, sacrificing beauty for their attention grabbing structures.
I observed this phenomenon a few years ago when Daniel Libeskind descended upon Toronto with his model for the Royal Ontario Museum extension. I have blogged about him and the demise of architecture almost since the beginning of my blog. Many other new buildings have been cropping up, including the Opera House, which reminded me of a Le Corbusier structure.
Later on, I tried to explain this phenomenon in an article "Conquering the Architecture of Death" that I wrote for ChronWatch.com, where said:
Our war is a war on culture, that we seem to be losing. Our transgression is that we no longer believe in our common sense, and our common heritage, and cannot project our cultural legacy into the future. We opt instead for titillating horrors and mediocre and dangerous structures.I think architecture is the last frontier for narcissistic, attention-seeking "artists." Modern painting has become a closed-door affair, with exorbitant sales going on for only a select (wealthy) few, independent of the general public. Only architecture forces itself on the public and demands that it be noticed and appreciated for its “art.” This is how Libeskind got to build his structure on popular Bloor Street, fooling the public, the city planners and his funders. And his structure gets to be seen by thousands of people on a regular basis.
Washington Post's architecture critique Philip Kennicott has written that the ROM "surpasses the ugliness of bland functional buildings by being both ugly and useless," and called it the worst building of the decade. I said this even before the building was up.
