6378 - Where Have the Horses Gone? IV


What do I think about it? Is that tragic? Just as things change?

Well, I think unrestricted capitalism turns every city in the world into an equal of one of the most boring cities in the US. Pick one from the popular lists on the Internet.

Cheap architecture always wins, and cheap architecture never preserves a place’s intrinsic character. Once it’s lost, it’s lost.

Good architecture is better, but with enough Calatrava buildings, every city becomes Valencia. Take a few other star architects, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, etc., and you find their buildings all over the world. Rich places tend to accumulate them, but again, that makes all rich places visually similar.

In my opinion, a city needs to protect its characteristic styles. If it does not, it will have lost its attraction to tourists. It might still be a good place to live, but in most cases of municipal neglect, it won’t even be that.