James Kunstler: How bad architecture wrecked cities

20 thoughts on “James Kunstler: How bad architecture wrecked cities”

1. Love this Ted talk. Let's stop putting up with postmodernists who defend brutalism as "sophisticated" and "boundary-pushing." This is nonsense. This architecture sucks out people's souls to be around. Think of how many government employees like the building they work in.
   Reinstate beauty in the world of architecture.
   "Beauty will save the world" – Dostoevsky

2. This talk has me conflicted. I love the sentiment; downscale, get rid of suburbia, build meaningful places. But the speaker seems to just HATE some architectural styles for no reason; constantly cracking dumb jokes that feel out of place. Also… "a nation worth defending"? Really?

3. Isn't this video all about getting rid of your addiction? Why is a car brand sponsoring it?

4. The post WWII order was the worst thing to ever happen to Western Civilisation & culture. Throw out your stupid AC/DC music for starters.

5. American city centers suffered after WW2 more from an abandonment and obsession of businesses moving to the suburbs than to bad architecture though this was of course a factor in their decline. In the U.K. for example the destruction of large areas of cities such as Birmingham (2nd largest after London) Manchester etc. was not because of a move to the suburbs but a pig headed attitude by planners and architects that the new must replace the out dated old (which of course was invariably of much higher quality). The result was the loss of many outstanding buildings replaced by cheap, ugly low quality junk much of which is now coming down because it's now universally despised. Post war architects did 10 times more damage than the German air force did during the war but many people are not aware of this fact.

6. Ok so he hates modern art/modern architecture, he just likes classic style. Got it. Some of the brutalist architecture he’s showing is actually pretty cool and he’s an old fuddy duddy

   Kunstler indeed

7. This rips off whole sections of Duany's Suburban Sprawl lecture and somehow still does it worse.

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

8. Back when Ted Talks was legit

9. James Kunstler is hilarious.
   He misses the social engineering that has made most American public spaces untenable though.

10. I personally despise modern architecture, basically it´s dehumanising and destroys cities and towns. If I had my way I would buldoze all modern architecture and in its place I would order architects to design classic buildings in keeping with a country´s history and culture. Also, I would put designs to the vote of the people living and working in such an environment. Modern architects are the servants of the people, but they see themselves as dictators pushing their hideous designs on the people who have to suffer the consequences.

11. I'm viewing this talk 13 years after the fact, in the middle of a pretty severe crisis. Part of why the crisis is so bad is because all this time later we're still building inefficient, idiotic cities with diminishing returns in life value vs. increasing financial cost. As far as "uplifting" goes, the architecture of the decade is some of the most abysmal minimalist modernism seen since the 60s that will age just as badly. New Urbanism hasn't prevailed, sadly. James H. Kunstler is an interesting guy, I'd recommend reading "The Geography of Nowhere."

12. This was great presentation, so good I wish it was longer.

13. We made the McMansions and strip malls prettier. That’s gotta count for something right?

14. I'm wondering who the 242 people are who disliked this video are. Brainwashed, defensive citizen or Le Corbusier with 242 YouTube accounts.

15. The Corona Virus brought me here….

16. I love this guy.

17. Oh look
    A Tedtalk back when Ted was about intelligence and not about playing the victim

18. Ok boomer

    Kidding

19. Wow, brilliant dude

20. Nailed it!!!

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