I'm from a city of about 80,000. We have our own homogenized architecture, built out of a desire to make everything look 'modern.' Windows everywhere, ceilings so nonexistent I don't even bother to look up half the time. They make our buildings seem bigger and more... Open to the outside than they really are. Sure, we're not Chicago or Toronto, we still have more than a few important buildings in the old styles, but our new architecture is... Well, it gets on your nerves after awhile. What I really want to say here is... Even if we aren't victims of the International Style here, an invasion is happening even here, as people move to the bigger cities that are facing new International Style additions. Everywhere and nowhere is supremely apt--and one could argue it happened to Catalyst as well.
Mirror's Edge in particular strikes my fancy in its environment both being great in pushing the whole idea of a surveillance state with sweeping all imperfection and uncleanliness under the rug and in being a great gameplay aid. In the gameplay sense the primary reason why it's a completely squeaky clean white environment with hints of very vibrant colors is to inform the player of where to go without breaking immersion as those very choices can be seen as telling say, the maintenance and janitorial services where to go and what to touch. This is before the whole red affinity triggered runner vision comes in too. Usually when environments in games are designed they only serve decorative purposes as excuses for levels to look the way they are or the better solution of making it so that it looks like it just happens that the state of that environment is neat for the player's mechanics (Painkiller being a favorite of mine since the ruined gothic architecture never seems like a case of the devs making it this way because it has to be a good level to play with). Mirror's Edge just happens to mix just a bit more. On the other hand, City 17 falls into the whole "environment happens to be good for the player" thing, but that place is filthy. Brown invasion of the time resulting from early 3D aside, City 17's messy state is also a strong contrast tool, as the neo-international style invasion is most shocking in developing countries. You can go to the financial centers and they are towering and the buildings are clean and almost made entirely out of glass, but look out from there and you see standard not so pretty buildings that can only occur out of a state of imbalanced development, where the surface and small percenters get all the rage but deep inside is something kinda sinister. Eastern European countries tend to suffer from this since the politicians there do tend to focus more on themselves than trying to say, make industrial cities less dreary. oh btw thanks for choosing two of the games that make me motion sick just playing them idk why this happens but apparently i'm not allowed to have fun
A city of failed invasions is probably the most architecturally interesting to me. Except, invasions always appear in clusters of buildings, and so really the contrast of styles is kind of ruined. I guess you could relate the "international style" to gentrified architecture and also, gentrification in general too.
Architectural history is rather fascinating as even through buildings elements of the culture that constructed them shine through with what they look like and the overall "style" they give off even with the international architecture it goes so to show how interconnected the whole world is even with the rather mundane styles that appeared these days. Interesting Video though i wonder if you'll give art-deco a shot one day?
@@argonbolt this video is a mish mash of video game commentary and personal architectural bias, also getting architecture wrong, some of those examples of "neo-modern" were postmodern, "meaningless statue" yeah, meaningless like the decoration on a ornamented building? You deride moderism for the same things you love traditional, also neo-classical styles are near the damn same from d.c to LA. do you really think people loved traditional styles back when they were the only thing besides vernacular? architects didin't change their whole motto in the 20s for no reason. i understand the frustration with visual blandness, but that stems from your own brain chemistry, architectural objectivity arguments dont work outside of symmetry because of how brain chemistry differs, people think brutalism is beautiful, the international style is a big cultural thing for chicago specifically, also that black glass skyscraper the seagram building was the first internationalist skyscraper, watching it show up and you say it started from the unknown is laughably architecturally ignorant, people who think boring buildings are a cause for genuine societal concern and that their misery cant be from every other awful thing in the world, even if the world was all traditional or back in the 2000s or whatever you'd still be miserable because the issues that actually matter dont get fixed. although even brutalism has more creativity than international
funny how Ma Yansong now a days has some concepts aka Shanshui city which mix structures with flora a better depature from the strange towers in Sauga. Though i guess it still makes use of the international style.
If my plate wasn't already packed id already be working on the next one today :cry: all i can ask is for a bit of patience, i do love doing these and will one day def do many more (hopefully :cry:)
Hey argonbolt, is it possible to give out the link to the discord server since the old link expired? I wasn't there for the release of the vid so i missed my chance to join
I see no greater threat in the tumorous growth of the concrete jungle than I do the long since finalized infestation of roads and traffic and endless parking space. Or before that, copy paste buildings squished together each with a tiny section of lawn of pretense nature to maintain and drown the rest of the urbanization out with. Or before that, when these buildings first began clamping together at all out of necessity and trade convenience. It's always been the same brutalization of the human being into commodity. Which in many ways was the status quo from day one. It's just getting more compressed down as people keep inflating the population without ever questioning what all these lives are used for. The architecture is only a visual symptom of this underlying aimless momentum that the individual is supporting.
i dont think the architecture is part of the urban planning issue, a boring building will never be as bad as a car centric suburb. it wasn't meant to crush the spirit, hell in some 60s architecture books internationalists talk about how they hate the car centric urban planning, but this is forgotten in lieu of supporting ones own bias, a few basic bitch buildings dont ruin the world, also "when these buildings first began clamping together" all of those events came around the same time in the 50s and 60s but you type it as if its a longer time period apart, even if modern architecture is somehow objectively ugly that will never be a pressing enough issue to change in a world where war and death and oppression are king.
I hate it was meant to destroy you from the outside make you theirs make you owned we must destroy this evil which takes no names and walks 1000 of walks
honestly the way people who don't like modern architecture equate it to a "invasion" or a destruction of soul or whatever is laughable, its a building built because its clean, futuristic, and cheap architecture was also always homogenized atleast by region, every 1800s midwest american building looks nigh indentical same with any art deco building same with gothic, also saying international style has no cultural hallmarks is false, its clearly american as all hell, its even one of the identifying styles of chicago (specifically the 70s kind, not the neomodern stuff which is bland), the seagram building, john hancock center, i dont like neomoderism either and i think this architecture has a right to exist, the problem is that its much much too common, Ubiquity drives humans insane
I'm from a city of about 80,000. We have our own homogenized architecture, built out of a desire to make everything look 'modern.' Windows everywhere, ceilings so nonexistent I don't even bother to look up half the time. They make our buildings seem bigger and more... Open to the outside than they really are. Sure, we're not Chicago or Toronto, we still have more than a few important buildings in the old styles, but our new architecture is... Well, it gets on your nerves after awhile.
What I really want to say here is... Even if we aren't victims of the International Style here, an invasion is happening even here, as people move to the bigger cities that are facing new International Style additions. Everywhere and nowhere is supremely apt--and one could argue it happened to Catalyst as well.
Mirror's Edge in particular strikes my fancy in its environment both being great in pushing the whole idea of a surveillance state with sweeping all imperfection and uncleanliness under the rug and in being a great gameplay aid. In the gameplay sense the primary reason why it's a completely squeaky clean white environment with hints of very vibrant colors is to inform the player of where to go without breaking immersion as those very choices can be seen as telling say, the maintenance and janitorial services where to go and what to touch. This is before the whole red affinity triggered runner vision comes in too. Usually when environments in games are designed they only serve decorative purposes as excuses for levels to look the way they are or the better solution of making it so that it looks like it just happens that the state of that environment is neat for the player's mechanics (Painkiller being a favorite of mine since the ruined gothic architecture never seems like a case of the devs making it this way because it has to be a good level to play with). Mirror's Edge just happens to mix just a bit more.
On the other hand, City 17 falls into the whole "environment happens to be good for the player" thing, but that place is filthy. Brown invasion of the time resulting from early 3D aside, City 17's messy state is also a strong contrast tool, as the neo-international style invasion is most shocking in developing countries. You can go to the financial centers and they are towering and the buildings are clean and almost made entirely out of glass, but look out from there and you see standard not so pretty buildings that can only occur out of a state of imbalanced development, where the surface and small percenters get all the rage but deep inside is something kinda sinister. Eastern European countries tend to suffer from this since the politicians there do tend to focus more on themselves than trying to say, make industrial cities less dreary.
oh btw thanks for choosing two of the games that make me motion sick just playing them idk why this happens but apparently i'm not allowed to have fun
I used to get mad motion sick myself si i know the struggle.
A city of failed invasions is probably the most architecturally interesting to me. Except, invasions always appear in clusters of buildings, and so really the contrast of styles is kind of ruined. I guess you could relate the "international style" to gentrified architecture and also, gentrification in general too.
Architectural history is rather fascinating as even through buildings elements of the culture that constructed them shine through with what they look like and the overall "style" they give off even with the international architecture it goes so to show how interconnected the whole world is even with the rather mundane styles that appeared these days. Interesting Video though i wonder if you'll give art-deco a shot one day?
For sure, its a personal favourite.
@@argonbolt this video is a mish mash of video game commentary and personal architectural bias, also getting architecture wrong, some of those examples of "neo-modern" were postmodern, "meaningless statue" yeah, meaningless like the decoration on a ornamented building? You deride moderism for the same things you love traditional, also neo-classical styles are near the damn same from d.c to LA. do you really think people loved traditional styles back when they were the only thing besides vernacular? architects didin't change their whole motto in the 20s for no reason. i understand the frustration with visual blandness, but that stems from your own brain chemistry, architectural objectivity arguments dont work outside of symmetry because of how brain chemistry differs, people think brutalism is beautiful, the international style is a big cultural thing for chicago specifically, also that black glass skyscraper the seagram building was the first internationalist skyscraper, watching it show up and you say it started from the unknown is laughably architecturally ignorant, people who think boring buildings are a cause for genuine societal concern and that their misery cant be from every other awful thing in the world, even if the world was all traditional or back in the 2000s or whatever you'd still be miserable because the issues that actually matter dont get fixed. although even brutalism has more creativity than international
Excellent!
herculean video, sir!
funny how Ma Yansong now a days has some concepts aka Shanshui city which mix structures with flora a better depature from the strange towers in Sauga. Though i guess it still makes use of the international style.
Brilliant job my friend! If this was a project for university, you’d get an A.
i thought that last part was going to talk about the invasion of minimalism into every aspect of culture
also ew france
Do you plan ono making this kind of analysis usually? I loved this, I've been returning to it for a few days.
If my plate wasn't already packed id already be working on the next one today :cry: all i can ask is for a bit of patience, i do love doing these and will one day def do many more (hopefully :cry:)
letting the days go by
sweating it out in an oversized suit.
Brutalis history seem close with persona palace
Hey argonbolt, is it possible to give out the link to the discord server since the old link expired?
I wasn't there for the release of the vid so i missed my chance to join
discord.gg/2XHF8pDP
so do you dont give away invites?
did something happen in the discord?
@@bilo114 I posted an invite link that should work unless it's borked
I see no greater threat in the tumorous growth of the concrete jungle than I do the long since finalized infestation of roads and traffic and endless parking space. Or before that, copy paste buildings squished together each with a tiny section of lawn of pretense nature to maintain and drown the rest of the urbanization out with. Or before that, when these buildings first began clamping together at all out of necessity and trade convenience. It's always been the same brutalization of the human being into commodity. Which in many ways was the status quo from day one. It's just getting more compressed down as people keep inflating the population without ever questioning what all these lives are used for. The architecture is only a visual symptom of this underlying aimless momentum that the individual is supporting.
i dont think the architecture is part of the urban planning issue, a boring building will never be as bad as a car centric suburb. it wasn't meant to crush the spirit, hell in some 60s architecture books internationalists talk about how they hate the car centric urban planning, but this is forgotten in lieu of supporting ones own bias, a few basic bitch buildings dont ruin the world, also "when these buildings first began clamping together" all of those events came around the same time in the 50s and 60s but you type it as if its a longer time period apart, even if modern architecture is somehow objectively ugly that will never be a pressing enough issue to change in a world where war and death and oppression are king.
I hate it was meant to destroy you from the outside make you theirs make you owned
we must destroy this evil which takes no names and walks 1000 of walks
honestly the way people who don't like modern architecture equate it to a "invasion" or a destruction of soul or whatever is laughable, its a building built because its clean, futuristic, and cheap architecture was also always homogenized atleast by region, every 1800s midwest american building looks nigh indentical same with any art deco building same with gothic, also saying international style has no cultural hallmarks is false, its clearly american as all hell, its even one of the identifying styles of chicago (specifically the 70s kind, not the neomodern stuff which is bland), the seagram building, john hancock center, i dont like neomoderism either and i think this architecture has a right to exist, the problem is that its much much too common, Ubiquity drives humans insane