re: Why is Architecture so Bland Today?

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Yeah that Soviet bloc housing was something special

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It was horrific and de humanizing. Like human storage centers. A lot of modern housing blocks in the US look like smaller, more expensive versions of that too - largely because code requires more stairs and elevators that are financially feasible on smaller developments.

IMO some of the worst trends out there was this brutalist crap that was used in government and university buildings in the 1950s-1990s. They provide views out but feel like bunkers from the outside. As if the designers knew the people inside would either not trust society outside or felt superior to them or both. Notable example is the Hoover building in DC, used as the FBI’s main HQ.