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a-loose-collection-of-ants · 2 months

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What type of architecture inspires you the most?

Oh what an incredibly long and involved answer this turned out to be. First things first, I am actively obsessed with the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

He was a Scottish architect who, along with his wife, designed some of the most gorgeous buildings I have ever seen in my life. I've never been to Glasgow, so I haven't had the chance to see any of them in person, but just-

This is the Glasgow School of art. It was destroyed by a fire in 2018. Restorations are happening, but, as far as I can find, those won't be completed until 2030.

Mackintosh was one of those architects that had to design every single piece of his buildings, including the furniture. This is where his collaboration with his wife came in. Margret Macdonald Mackintosh was not an architect, but she was an artist and designer. Her influence can be seen in the details present in a lot of their designs.

This is the House for an Art Lover, which I have to mention, in part, because it's a good example of their combined style, but also because of these absurd fucking chairs:

Something about their love of a strong vertical line led to chairs with the most insane, needlessly grandiose proportions and I love it with my whole heart. (this is a tangent I don't want to go on, but the famously humble and not at all self-important Frank Lloyd Wright uses these exact chairs in some of his designs, which is really funny for one of those architects who liked to pretend all his ideas were original) There's a sort of industrial feel to a lot of Mackintosh's work which is the exact sort of thing I've always been enamored with. I'm an artist and everything, but I'm related to enough engineers that, to me, structure is one of the prettiest things in the world.

Frank Furness is a good example of this in a way that's more local to me. He was a believer in monumentalizing the structure of a building, which is why the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is insane a little bit. Seriously, look at this building:

At some point, I'm going to have to walk over there and do some studies of the place.

But back to the actual question, part of studying architecture (as is the case with any creative field) is finding inspiration in everything you encounter. I'm enamored by the beautiful historic buildings I see every day in Philadelphia, but I'm equally "inspired" by this one house near where I grew up that has the most horrifically arranged street-facing window pattern I have ever seen (spite is one hell of a motivator).

Every single part of our built environment looks the way it does for a reason. Even spaces designed without heavy involvement from architects are filled with little decisions that shape the way our world looks and feels, and I think it's a fun exercise to look at them and figure out why everyone involved made the decisions they did, even if it's something simple like "concrete is cheaper".

Anyway, tune back in in 4-7 business days when, at the height of whatever cold I just managed to catch, I drop a full essay on Thomas Jefferson's design for the University of Virgina and how it reflects both his idealized hope for an agrarian America and his hypocrisy in believing such a future would be an egalitarian one.

#Oh boy this took a while to answer #I almost feel like I should add a disclaimer that I actually barely know what I'm talking about #but building look cool and thats all that matters #archposting #asks #really though I love a good excuse to rant about the things I've invested my life in #I'm not joking about that TJ bit #but it will definitely take longer than a week

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