The Tastemakers Society

I have to sort of agree with my friend Stefan architecture is getting a little boring, it did excite me for awhile and even now I still get happy here and there when I see certain new architecture (things with glass, ha, I’m weak for glass structures) but overall I’m a little tired, yawn status even. It’s like we are going through that phase that I think well hope are starting to come out of with design, design with getting so much attention that designers were the “new” rockstars and everything was design this or design that. But in the face of mainstreaming design it also starting becoming really dry, as if designers were just throwing anything together, or just making something for buzz/media coverage sake but in the wake of all this the core reason of design was being left out, to solve a problem. And now I’m feeling that architecture is hitting that phase, we’ve already dubbed the new coin phrase “starchitects” and have those big names designing everything from buildings in Dubai to sneakers or giving them reality series’. But focusing on architecture so much and giving it all this press is the ying and yang affect, the good is it brings awareness to architecture and helping bring people to appreciating it more which is a good thing. The yang is that by doing so you have made it where the more coverage one receives the more commissions he/she will receive making it a kind of celeb rag type case in architecture, the more out there, wild, and press hungry you can be the more money you will seemingly make. So, in my opinion architecture is now being made more out of the “gotta wow” them concept then the, “how can we made this structure work beautifully, effortlessly, and functionally”. Now, I’m not an architecture expert, or a road scholar, I’m just a guy with an opinion (a good one in my opinion), a computer, and a thing for architecture. But, like I said before sometimes architecture can still get me excited and the new California Academy of Sciences designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (great last name right?) did just that, it excited me. It lets me know the forward movement of architecture is still happening and the future is bright, and as long as there are architects willing to pull of this type of work, in this style, simple with complexity, then I’ll be a happy man. The opening of the building is in 2 days, you can read the NYtimes article here or you can jump straight to viewing some images of the place here.