[travel] Fake vs real Art Nouveau.
May. 19th, 2009 05:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mattbellRiga (Latvia) is supposedly famous for its Art Nouveau district. When I got there to see it, I was depressed to find a whole lot of prefab gaudy doohickies attached to older buildings. According to a guy in my hostel, that's exactly what happened. A local businessman ordered a bunch of premade highlights out of a French Art Nouveau “modernize your building with these easy adornments” catalog. So the whole thing looks lame, ovverdone, and tacky.
Yes, but isn't that the point? No, here's how to do gaudy properly: I found this lovely building in Budapest. The difference is that the building was designed from the ground up to be Art Nouveau and it was actually conceived of as a harmonious whole.
Riga's Art Nouveau quarter:
The awesome building in Budapest:
It seems like any new form of architecture that catches on is simplified and standardized because it's suddenly in high demand and mediocre architects need a way of turning out large numbers of such buildings in short order.
Yes, but isn't that the point? No, here's how to do gaudy properly: I found this lovely building in Budapest. The difference is that the building was designed from the ground up to be Art Nouveau and it was actually conceived of as a harmonious whole.
Riga's Art Nouveau quarter:
The awesome building in Budapest:
It seems like any new form of architecture that catches on is simplified and standardized because it's suddenly in high demand and mediocre architects need a way of turning out large numbers of such buildings in short order.
