Comment by larusso

Comment by larusso a day ago

13 replies

I see this as well with huge modern buildings with wood parts. They look great the first year. The wood shines red’ish. After a winter the wood part starts to grey out. I understand that this is sometimes a look they strife for but all the preview renders show it in the prestige condition. Nobody is doing a yearly training. And don’t get me started on all the glass survives for elevators, roofs, bus stops, divider panels next to tram stops (I’m mainly meaning Berlin here) which nobody cares to clean or is so difficult to clean that after 2 or 3 years it looks very run down.

Joel_Mckay a day ago

Some see a patina with weathered surfaces as desirable.

The beauty of Kintsugi can also be difficult for people to understand. =3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LMKGte0UU

  • larusso a day ago

    The Statue of Liberty would be red without her patina and would look weird ;). I’m not talking about the beauty of weathering. I think a dirty glass roof which no longer lets any light through a planned weathering tactic. The point was that the plans architects make are always showing the building in prestine condition. And they never reflect how this building will look like in a few years. One example I see every day is a Train-station entrance. It has a very dramatic metal ark that stretches up. Looked great in the past. Now you see dirty water running down the surface. The brushed metal is stained with grime that pilled up. Every time it rains the grime runs a bit deeper. They tried to clean it a few month back. They have to come with a special crane and water jets to remove the grime. But nobody takes the time to polish the surface back up. Is this bad? No of course not. But don’t plan and sell something that will only last for half a year. That’s why I also think this post is brilliant.

    • Joel_Mckay a day ago

      The Art Deco architecture of New York city is often lost on many visitors.

      Lady liberty is showing her age, but only requires a few people still care. She was always beautiful. =3

      • larusso 21 hours ago

        I love NY. Not only for the art decor but als the human weathering ;) I meant that Lady Liberty would look weird because she is known to be green. I know that the early advertisements showed her red as well. Also when the torch was shown in NY to fundraise the pedestal.

  • Moosdijk a day ago

    Bringing kintsugi into this conversation is like saying “being underwater can be quite advantageous!” and linking a video on fish, when the main topic is about people drowning in the ocean.

    • Joel_Mckay a day ago

      Art is everywhere, and starts with a simple philosophy of making things slightly less awful everyday. Initially focused on your own mind, body, and soul... then recognizing you were always part of something a lot bigger and older than most imagine.

      I do appreciate your poetic tone though =3

  • IgorPartola a day ago

    Patina and rot are very different things.

    • usrusr a day ago

      Not necessarily. On a design that requires being new to look good, all weathering will be perceived as rot, never as patina.

      The point is that some approaches to architectural beauty make it more or less impossible that any amount of weathering could ever be perceived as patina, while others look good both new and old.