WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Flyover Features: Why is Modern Architecture so Boring?

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Emma and Sophia discuss an article which posits a view as to why modern architecture is "starving your brain."

You're listening to Flyover Features on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Emma Verini, and I'm here with Sophia Mant. This is a radio show where we discuss a features article that is relevant to the time. Today, we're going to discuss an article called Boring Architecture is Starving Your Brain. It is written by Joao Medeiros. It was published June 25, 2024. The article basically centers around a guy named Thomas Heatherwick, who believes, that architecture has a nutritional value to society and that the public desperately deserves a better

offering. What did you think about this article, Sophia? It was very interesting because it's getting at something a lot of people are not thinking today in architecture, which is how the space or field of a building and what it looks like is going to change the way you see the world and see things. The space you interact with, it does have an effect on you psychologically. And if you're just creating all these bore bearing homogenized housing, what effect does that have on people? And it certainly seems like a lot of the builders, the contractors, don't have those thoughts in mind. Yeah, I mean, what this article mentions is basically a, what was it, like a vote. People within this company took a vote about whether or not public opinion, about whether buildings even look nice is important.

and basically they decided that public opinion literally does not matter at all when it comes to what buildings look like and what sort of construction projects that they do. So this stuff is really not popular. It's just a matter of a lot of times what's cheapest in terms of like short-term financial goals. Long-term, we come to find out that actually it's wasteful to build ugly buildings, because even though they tend to be more space efficient, they tend to get demolished more often, too, because people don't actually like looking at them or, you know, if another construction company comes along, they're like, well, we want to build something new. So it has a negative impact on the environment. And a lot of buildings that could otherwise stand for a very long time get demolished. Yes, and it's like the maximizing power of technique or maximum efficiency means without ends that seem to be leading to this.

And it's very strange because Thomas Heather Wix says we can't have buildings that are only here for 40 years. We need a thousand-year thinking. And it is weird that it's like you're not really thinking of the future, you're just thinking of the here or now and you're building these buildings. And it's weird how there's almost this culture that seems to exist that I noticed in the U.S. that appeared less apparent when I visited Europe and was in Vienna, Austria, and parts of Italy, was how all the buildings, yes, America's a newer country, but all the buildings are just constantly torn down or rebuilt an American, they don't last that long, whereas there seems to be this stronger value of preserving traditions in ancient buildings, and old architecture is actually

respected, and people live amongst buildings that have been there since the Middle Ages for many, many years and I recall staying in Florence in these steep stairs, you know, there's no AC, there's no elevator as this was before that it was a thing. You just go these long stone steps into this beautiful room and up on a Terrence and balcony. And it's, there's so much more thought and soul behind those works of architecture. And it's really unfortunate that I think much of Europe maybe is, if there's one thing they're doing better than us, it definitively is their value of the old building. I agree. I think that obviously it's harder for us to have old buildings in the sense that they've been there since the middle ages, but we don't really seem to value

building beautiful buildings, but just the most efficient buildings. And I mean, what's really strange, I think, is just, number one, the way zoning works in America. I mean, like, if zoning is a certain way in a city, for example, you have to, you're sort of forced to maximize space in certain, like, residential buildings and stuff like that. And the other thing that's really strange is the fact that I was driving through some neighborhoods in Raleigh where I'm from a couple of weeks ago. And I was driving through a relatively older neighborhood. It's a wealthier neighborhood, a lot of nice, like, medium to large sizes, houses, a lot of historic looking houses. And then every couple of houses or every, like, five or ten houses, there's just this monstrosity in the middle where it's, like, obvious that either it was an empty piece of land or, like, another older, like, smaller house got torn down or nobody was living in it. And it's just this square.

It's a square, pretty much, or a rectangle, like a modern building. It's either black or white, and it's just got this massive window on, like, one side. And it's not anything worth looking at. And it's just strange to... see it plopped in the middle of an old, like, nice historic neighborhood. This also happens in another, like, sort of close to where I'm from, like downtown Kerry, for example, which is a smaller town that's close to Raleigh, where there's this old, a lot of old historic buildings, there's like an art center, there's this nice Victorian house or a couple

nice Victorian houses in the area. And then you've got these, like, these pieces of land zoned for like multifamily buildings. And obviously we're trying to cram as many people into these as possible into their, you know, into these like tiny apartments. And so you've got like a couple of historic houses, like a church and then boom, like black, gray, ugly, construction site, like apartment building. And so I think obviously part of the reason is just like zoning overpopulation is another big issue. And I think what's most insulting about it isn't even the fact that these are like ugly because I mean sometimes you're going to have ugly architecture. That's just everywhere. But I think what's most insulting about it is that it's just like in the

middle of a historic district or in the middle of these really nice houses. Yeah. I do think you say overpopulation, but it's also like, I don't know, you can make apartment buildings that are still pretty neat looking. That's the problem. Like even relatively speaking, a lot of the older skyscrapers or cityscapes in New York, for example, are a lot better looking than kind of the, you know, my town of Cedar Falls, Northeast Iowa, Midtown, Suburbia, where it's like these generic looking apartment buildings that are. are all the same or townhomes just popping up amongst cornfields that just all look the same. It's just really gross. It's like, I don't know. Time Square, even if it's modern, has more character to it and uniqueness, even if it's pure consumerism, then just these generic McMansion type buildings. And then it's kind of disgusting to read about, you know, I was reading this piece that was discussing modern architecture and how the point is to fill your mind, like the point is for it to be empty, for there to be nothing there.

And you just kind of, they somehow think you don't take it in, or maybe that's a beautiful or good thing. And I'm thinking, why do they think it's good to strip everything down to its barest level in that sense? Maybe it's more interesting if you're the only one doing it. But now it's like everywhere is just this, these houses made with no purpose but for money. And not even money, just I don't even know. There's no art to architecture. An architecture is said to be by some of the 19th century American and British architects as both a philosophy and an art and a science. And perhaps you could say they take it too far.

You almost get a Tower of Babel sense of wanting to build to the heavens. But I think this ambition properly channeled into wanting to create something visually beautiful is something that ought to be encouraged. And I don't know. It seems like it would be alienating to go to many architecture schools now considering how banal the buildings that are being created are. I mean, most of those people probably studied architecture on some level to get there. You're listening to Flyover Features on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Yeah, I don't, I can't really speak to that, honestly. I don't know what sort of thought is going into this.

I don't know if a lot of thought is going into it. Probably. I don't think so. I know that authoritarian regimes will tend to do that sort of thing intentionally, where buildings are made to sort of repress your spirit and depress you and stuff like that. I don't think that's what's going on here. I just think it's sort of a laziness and a willingness to maximize efficiency,

even if that means sort of cutting back the beauty or the ornateness that buildings can have. Yeah, I don't think any intentional evil is being made by architects, but it's a disturbing lack of creativity. Yeah. When you think of stuff made to intimidate, that reminds me of the building that was the fascist headquarters, of Mussolini. And if you can look this up, it's just this, it's just this building that has a 3D statue protruding from it, almost like in Egypt when they have those big cat statues.

The sphinx, yes, thank you. Yes, I forgot what that was. It's just this face of this twisted, pudgy, angry-looking man, probably meant to resemble Mussolini. outside from this building that has all these like S designs around it, I think, or some sort of design. And it's just made to intimidate and strike a fear in the regime. But technically, at least there was a lot of thought put into it. And it is doing something creative. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. So, yeah, that. There's that redeeming quality. Yeah. Well, it technically is, I think, like an interesting, unique building. It's also just ugly in some ways and scary the religious fervor behind it, but it's definitely a contrast. There seems this apathy towards genuine spontaneity today,

and it seems like it's a mix both of maybe the world we live in, but it seems like there has to be some individual fault too. if you're deliberately not choosing or thinking creatively, I don't know. It's hard for me to not think there's some self-blame there. Well, there certainly is. I mean, it talks about it here. What I was discussing earlier with the survey. There are people who are intentionally saying, like, hey, we know people hate the way this stuff looks, but we're going to do it anyway.

And that's that. So, I mean, there are people who are saying that, and I don't think that they're doing it, like, intentionally making it ugly. I mean, maybe they are, but they're, it's just a sort of, at the very best, just laziness. Oh, yes. And as Heather Wark notes this, to quote from the article, this bored room he has isn't just a nuisance. It can be harmful. Boring is worse than nothing. Boring is a state of psychological deprivation

Just as the body will suffer When it's deprived of food The brain begins to suffer When it's deprived of sensory information Bordrum is the starvation of the mind It's pretty profound Yeah And in another study

By Colin Lard Cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo Who he studies the neurolux the neurological and psychological impact of the built environment, which is interesting. That bears some similarities to what I remember reading and learning in social psychology, where field theory, which is kind of the field of the space you occupy, how much does that affect you, the environment? And he showed that people's moods were affected when surrounded by tall buildings. And when they pass by a boring building, they're more likely for their bodies to go into fight or flight mode.

They have nothing for their mind to connect to, as the article's states, what do you make of that? You know, I sort of have to diverge from the main point of this article a little bit, and I think the way I would summarize what this is saying in a sentence is that a lot of modern architecture is boring. Bortem starves the mind, and that causes psychological deprivation, and that's a bad thing. What I would say instead is that it's... actually something that elicits, at least in me, disgust.

I don't feel bored looking at a lot of modern architecture. And it's not just modern architecture, just in general, architecture aimed solely at achieving the ends of efficiency. I feel disgust. And I think I could actually look at that stuff for a long time and not be bored thinking about the fact that I don't like the way it looks. So, I mean, I've even had friends. When I was driving through Raleigh, like I was talking about earlier,

I actually did feel intellectually stimulated by a lot of the stuff that I saw because I was complaining about it for like 10 minutes. Well, that is the fight part of the flight mode. True. A little bit. True. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, I think that's my main contention here is that I don't necessarily feel bored when I'm looking at it. I think I sort of instinctually recognize that that is something that should not be there. And that's the other thing. I don't think all this modern architecture is bad and it has no place, but it certainly has no place in a lot of the places that I've seen it. I think if possible, I would hope people could make buildings as beautifully as they can. But I'm also not going to be totally unrealistic and say that, you know, all throughout the world there can be beautiful buildings. I want to strive for goodness, but to sound stereotypically Hillsdale in.

But also, obviously, there's always going to be poverty and the need to create or a requirement to create cheap, not the best-looking housing. But it feels like with our resources, there's still some disturbing lack of creativity in, like, people having money who could, but don't add some creativity behind what they're making. and it also is very wasteful to, as we mentioned before, to directly discuss the article. I find this article on Wired very short but very well written, so hopefully I'm doing this, I'm promoting them, but just, I'm kind of like just directly saying sometimes what they say. Heather Rick calls the short-term thinking, the dirty secret of the construction industry, and it has a disastrous environmental impact.

apparently in the U.S., one billion, one billion square feet of buildings are demolished every year. That's half of Washington, D.C., our capital, destroyed, just to get rebuilt, but not with something even better. They're not even destroying something with the claim that it'll be better. It's just a boring, boring buildings, boring dystopia. I'm being a little dramatic here, but, you know, it's crazy. whereas apparently in the UK, 50,000 buildings a year are demolished. I don't know that much about specific European countries, but I'm assuming in this comparison, it's showing that things are not looking great for the UK, despite being European either.

Average age of a commercial building is around 40 years. So if I were a commercial building, I would have been killed 14 years ago, replies Heatherwick, which is really interesting, this way of seeing could be a stress. a certain devaluing of life or lengthliness or things of the past via the destruction of architecture. And yeah, it's apparently not good for the environment either just in terms of like pollution or whatnot. I don't know the specifics. But yeah, he's very intense. He says towards the end, the world of construction teaches you that form follows function, is more ornament is a crime. It's powerful. And when you're studying, it goes in your brain and brainwashes you. So he's

accusing the architecture industry or the study of it as having some kind of indoctrination or brainwashed thinking going on here in a different and more creative way than your typical right-wing article. This is not from a right-wing perspective, but typical like, oh, identity politics or oh, Trump, Maga. I don't know. Like this is a more creative, I think, accusation than what I often hear. Yeah, I was not expecting it to be this extreme either. I was surprised, but this guy has a lot more experience in architecture, obviously, than either of us do.

And so I think he's got something to tell us about it. And, yeah, I was surprised. I just sort of figured it was people being lazy. But he seems to say that there's a little bit more intention behind this stuff than I was expecting, certainly. You know, I'm on ironically, okay, for people listening, I genuinely like doing this show. Being candid here, after talking about this through with you, this on ironically has interested me so much that I almost want to study it for sociology or like look into it more deeper with journalism. Like what's going on in these places that people are learning architecture is what he's saying true to cause this brutal sort of brainwashing of just function over beauty.

That would be definitely good to look into. You've been listening to Flyover Features on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm Sophia Mant, speaking with Emma Verrini.