I once lamented to an architect the starkly dissociative layout of South Africa's RDP housing; he retorted that there was no relation between architecture and community well-being. Your article indicates the opposite; fascinating look at articulations between monumentalism and misery, Brutalism and brutality. Similarly, didn't Johannesburg's Ponte Building feature in the dystopian film District 9?
Brilliant writing about a brutal world and some buildings which embody it. The reality of these blunt wedges is thoroughly explored and explained in this piece. The illustrations, particularly the vividly coloured interior stairwells, make me glad I live a third of the world away. This subject choice is so far removed from the arabesque lyricism of La Sagrada Familia that is is fascinating to consider how the same Catalan mind spirit can produce such extremes of visual poetry.
Truly intimidating architecture - living in a place like that would be enough to destroy ones' heartland. Even watching a movie filmed in that environment would tear the soul. Bleak, forbidding, intimidating ... what a contrast to your other architectural joys!
A fascinating subject unknown to me before reading this article - my mind is now racing with the imagery described. It is always a delight to read your work Elysoun - well done again!
I once lamented to an architect the starkly dissociative layout of South Africa's RDP housing; he retorted that there was no relation between architecture and community well-being. Your article indicates the opposite; fascinating look at articulations between monumentalism and misery, Brutalism and brutality. Similarly, didn't Johannesburg's Ponte Building feature in the dystopian film District 9?
Brilliant writing about a brutal world and some buildings which embody it. The reality of these blunt wedges is thoroughly explored and explained in this piece. The illustrations, particularly the vividly coloured interior stairwells, make me glad I live a third of the world away. This subject choice is so far removed from the arabesque lyricism of La Sagrada Familia that is is fascinating to consider how the same Catalan mind spirit can produce such extremes of visual poetry.
Truly intimidating architecture - living in a place like that would be enough to destroy ones' heartland. Even watching a movie filmed in that environment would tear the soul. Bleak, forbidding, intimidating ... what a contrast to your other architectural joys!
A fascinating subject unknown to me before reading this article - my mind is now racing with the imagery described. It is always a delight to read your work Elysoun - well done again!