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Jennifer Bidding's avatar

It's incredible what boorish architecture is going up in and around Utrecht these days. The only interesting thing happening is probably Wonderwoods by Italian architect Stefano Boeri. The new city hall building is great, but then they built the hideous "World Trade Center" right next to it and blocked the facade. I think people don't take any interest in it because of the lack of education surrounding architecture / architectural history. People just allow the city planners to run things without question, which is sad.

ArchGoat's avatar

I agree, although I'm a bit unreasonable in that I really don't like anything that's being constructed. Would love to be proven wrong some day. But yeah, overall I feel like people don't have a natural inclination to appreciate architecture in the same way they do music, poetry or painting.

wp200's avatar

Best book (booklet? Screed?) about why modern architecture is ugly: from Bauhaus to our house by Tom Wolfe.

Probably best to first read his similar treatment of modern art (the painted word).

And modern? That was 55 years ago.