GYPSY ARCHITECTURE

My entire knowledge of gypsies comes from old black & white, Hollywood werewolf movies. In those movies gypsies dress flamboyantly, are superstitious and quick to re-act to insult, and are wanderers who travel around in beautiful covered wagons. Well, I was partly wrong.  An increasing number of them aren't wanderers anymore.

Thanks to the enlightened tolerance of Romania and Moldova, the gypsies in those places often have permanent houses. Some of the gypsies are even rich and can afford custom-made villas and mansions.  A book called "Gypsy Architecture" documents these upscale neighborhoods where each house is built gypsy-style, with turrets, tiles, and layered rooftops (above). The style mixes Indian, Turkish, and even Chinese.

I'm really happy for the gypsies. Finally a place of their own! I read that very often the rich owners won't live in them.  The rooms are all furnished, and the appliances work, but the purpose of the house is impress people, and living in them would just get them dirty. Better to keep them pristine, as showpieces. The whole family sleeps outside. 

 

Boy, those columns on the clover-leaf porches look like ones you'd see in India!

A few interiors, courtesy of Anonymous.  I don't know what to make of these shots. There's a huge kitsch element here, but there's also a sincerity that commands respect.

And imposing fireplace (above) combined with a strangely vacant room. 

A high ceiling (above) combined with an unconventional color scheme.

Definitely different (above) than what I'm used to seeing here! I wish I could go to Romania and see these rooms for myself!

IF ARTISTS DESIGNED CITIES

I'm not a fan of the mega city concept, where one architect designs the look of an entire city. That unified look is great for sci-fi movies (above), but most of us want the city we're actually going to live in to have more diversity. I like cities where each division has its own flavor, each section has its own story to tell.



Architects aren't sympathetic to any of this. They believe in the one-size-fits-all philosophy where the solution to every problem is simplistic, bold shapes.  I hate stuff like that.

Architects are clueless about what people really want.

A lot of what they're building today (above) will be the crime-ridden, concrete slums of tomorrow.

There's plenty of examples of good, vintage architecture out there, but you can't get architects to pay attention to it. Maybe it's time to give artists a turn at bat.  They can't do worse than what's around now. 

These days artists are steeped in graphic novels which are always depicting the dark side of things.  If artists designed a city they'd probably go for something funereal, like Gotham City in the "Batman" movie.

Such a city is bound to attract a criminal element.  Rather than leave their housing to chance, artists should build it (above) for them. Maybe something by H. R. Giger. 

Maybe thugs would feel at home in this environment, and not be tempted to venture out looking for victims.

Giger fantasizes about making murals out of human remains. (above). criminals should love that.

If the city is going to have a modern design, let's try something really drastic (above). Imagine going down that staircase on the upper left.  The steep angle would take your breath away, and descending would be difficult and dangerous...but it sure would be fun! 

Maybe a city of raised platforms half a mile in the air would make for a stimulating walk.

Maybe we need to flood the streets the way Venice is flooded. Wouldn't it be fun to take a boat to work?

Here's (above) a little Lego city that Norman Mailer built years ago, and which still stands somewhere. Each Lego block represents an apartment. Mailer said philosophers would live on the top, call girls would live in the white blocks, and corporate executives in the black ones.

Here's an idea (above) for giving Manhattan a kind of colorful, kid's playroom look.

Here's (above) a goth city where half the population is Christian and requires a lot of churches, and the other half are irreverent satanists who delight in building churches upside-down.

A city which is divided like that will naturally be pretty tense. To distract the population from their differences I suggest a diversion, perhaps a race of genetically modified giants who will walk around and randomly intimidate people.  

If the giants get out of hand, the city's water monsters will be unleashed. Water monsters eat giants. 

Here's (above) a possible layout for a New York City.  The buildings would be crammed together...really packed. Every window would be butted up to some window in the next building. if you want to live here you better be the kind of person who gets along with your neighbors. 

MORE STRIPS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT

All from that magnificent blog..."Stripper's Guide," whose address can be found in my list of links. I'm dying to comment on these but I'm so sleepy that I can hardly sit upright.

It goes without saying: be sure to click to enlarge. These won't look like much at thumbnail size.

YALE'S CONTROVERSIAL ART & ARCHITECTURE BUILDING

What do you think of Yale's Art & Architecture Building (above)? People who don't like it call the style "brutalist," which is a good name for the kind of bleak, concrete boxes that were built from the 50s to the 70s, but I'm not sure that name applies here. I concede that the building has a lot of brutalist aspects, but it's simultaneously innovative and imaginative, don't you think?

I like the idea of an indoor village (above) where the offices are like raised houses separated by grass. It's not very practical and it wastes space, and it must inhibit communication between the workers, but it's kinda fun and that counts for something surely.

This interior (above) looks like Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water" house. Did he invent those long, concrete balcony railings coming off brick-shaped vertical supports?

I like the way the interior is on different levels. This must drive handicapped people nuts, but it's fun for the rest of us. 

It's weird to see a whole building made out of what looks like kids building blocks. You can buy natural wood building blocks with most of these shapes, including the flat planks. They're great to keep in a basket next to a coffee table, but you need to buy more than one set to build anything decent. 

These horizontals and verticals are interesting in small doses, but a bit hard on the eye over time.

The Greek statue (above) is simultaneously out of place, and not out of place in this modernist library room.



The Yale arts building is done in a kind of vertical/horizontal modernism that's out of fashion now. Everything now is diagonal, chaotic, and deliberately disorienting. That's OK, I don't mind being dis-oriented, it's fun, but I hate obsessively blank walls and wind traps like some of the facets on the building above.

This building (above) looks like a cubist bird. It's weird, and inadequately lit on the upper floors, but I'd still like to live in it.

Back to the Yale building: some of the spaces (above) succeed in being wide and tall at the same time. That's a neat trick. You can see how he does it with the lights. Wide rooms with bright, flat-colored carpets are appealing at first glance and tiring after that.  

The LA County Art Museum has steps like the ones on the Yale building above. It's odd to see steps, which imply power and grandeur, tucked away in an almost claustrophobic crevice. I think this is the main entrance.

Boy, you feel like you're walking along ancient Egyptian temples, except everything is obsessively clean and straight, and lacking in detail.

Modern architecture (above) has its good points, but it sure wastes space. 

You can see why the building (above) is regarded as brutalist.  Outside it's a concrete wind trap. 

The interlocking concrete rectangles are definitely interesting. Looking at them makes me aware of the marvelous design possibilities that concrete makes possible, but it also makes me aware of its limitations. The look is intriguing, but cold as ice. 

These balcony railings look like they're made of wood, but they're done in the style of flat, modernist concrete railings. It looks OK, but it's a waste of good wood to use it to copy minimalist forms made for concrete. 

I have to admit that I'm conflicted about this building.  What do you think?