If one looks about there are eyes, and faces everywhere. Once it was common to give each building a human touch. This above is across the street from my digs.
The brownstones in my area including the one I grew up in were full of artistic intention. Post modernism with it's suspicion of reason vanished it to history. Yet they look upon us every day to remind us of our humanity,....if only subliminally.
Faces in buildings are animistic, and this is a good thing. It means we know the world is alive and has consciousness (provided of course that they be friendly, beneficent faces).
ReplyDeleteThere's a woman who's written a book about architecture from the standpoint of neuroscience. In the interview I heard recently, she said the human brain seeks out faces, in buildings as much as anywhere. The fact that classical buildings have recognizable types - house, theatre, museum, barn - is also a response to psychological needs hardwired into us. The same is true of orders of ornament. So the systematic erasure of these things is a form of neurological as well as aesthetic deprivation.
It began with neurological damage. Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe were veterans of WWI; both had PTSD. Gropius, who taught at Harvard, often said "we are going to sweep away the past and begin completely anew." A desire to erase the past is a common characteristic of PTSD, as it's a way of blotting out traumatic memories.
Le Corbusier was autistic.
This seems to explain a lot, doesn't it? These neurologically damaged individuals recapitulated their traumatic experiences by designing buildings that resemble trenches, dugouts and grim fortifications. Neurologically normal people are repelled by blank walls and large empty spaces (for evolutionary reasons - wide open spaces are where predators can easily catch their prey); these architects and their successors have inflicted psychological distress on several generations thus far.
The industrial fandango is winding down. It's about time to stop afflicting humanity with awful architecture, and it is just possible that we will soon see a change for the better in this respect.
Z
You have provided us with a very informative and insightful comment "Z". Many thanks!
DeleteWell put my friend.
ReplyDeleteIn pre-postmodern/PTSD buildings one sees humanity.
In more recent times a veldt filled with cold predators.
Walking among faces such as above. I see walls of souls.