Charlie McHenry
Unpopular opinion #architecture - La Familia Sagrada basilica in Barcelona has a hideous exterior design - common to the world’s worst, but still celebrated, architect: Gaudi. I’ve visited twice, decades apart - and though the interior has its moments, the exterior is, imho, simply ugly, a blight on the city like most of Gaudi’s work. His designs appear to me like a child drizzling wet sand to create a toddler castle on the beach. #SagradaFamilia #buildings #barcelona
Mar 20 at 7:24pmWeb
Show threadAccordionBruce3d ago

@CharlieMcHenry
I bet you probably like some other architect who’s subjectively better and think you’re entitled to an opinion about them too

The nerve 😤
#architecture

Show threadAccordionBruce3d ago

@CharlieMcHenry
The documentary I saw where they showed the upside-down hanging form he used to design the cathedral was pretty interesting

I gather they did that with less weird looking domes before that. But I’d never seen anything like this

Clever don’t get it built on time though
#Gaudi #Barcelona #architecture

Show threadCharlie McHenry3d ago
@AccordionBruce I did label the toot as an ‘unpopular opinion’ in my defense. I’ve seen most of his work around the city, and none of it made sense to me. The frightful apartment building and the gaudy park… I guess I’m also just surprised at how much love and respect he gets from the locals. Barcelona is an unusual city, so preoccupied with modernity, when the rest of Spain is absorbed with preserving the past. It’s a Catalan thing I suppose.
Show threadAccordionBruce3d ago

@CharlieMcHenry
There’s room for personal taste in most styles where it really doesn’t hurt anybody if we don’t like one over another

Really, the fact that people don’t like certain things, is almost a sign of the variety of appreciation of others

As long as it kind of goes along with bemusement that at least some people do

Show threadMatt Godden3d ago
@CharlieMcHenry Why do you hate joy?
Show threadCharlie McHenry3d ago
@metaning I don’t hate it, or much of anything. Takes too much effort. I just think it’s ugly, as are most of Gaudi’s works. Just my contrarian opinion. I’ve seen his Barcelona creations in person, and I was not impressed by any of his designs. I would describe his work as ‘eyesores’ rather than ‘joyful’.
Show threadMatt Godden3d ago
@CharlieMcHenry Barcelona could be full or mass-produced Gehry, or Hadid, or Forster, (or nightmare of nightmares; Heatherwick) or their derivatives, the contemporary postmodern international genericia trowelled over every empty space. Be thankful somewhere provided a canvas for a singular artist to have a singular vision expressed.
Show threadCharlie McHenry2d ago
@metaning Point taken.