(12-19-2022, 08:06 PM)bravado Wrote: I guess I don't get many chances to talk to architects...
In your opinion, what structural changes are needed to incentivize beauty? Does this come from clients who don't care, or overworked/uninspired firms cranking out projects as soon as possible?
If we want beautiful buildings again, do we need to have robber barons to pay for it like a century ago or is there a way to incentivize it on a bigger scale?
The problem really starts with the developers. In almost all cases a developer is in the business of developing a property to make a profit. The bar thus ends up pretty low in terms of what they will find acceptable for a building project based on what they're willing to spend upfront. "Good enough" is the ethos. If it isn't obscenely bad then it's good enough. Since they have a very low bar to pass, they don't go out hiring expensive firms. Why hire Bjarke Ingels Group or Cyril Chênebeau Architecte when people are going to pay you enough money to turn a profit to live in an ugly building either way?
Of course the architects get the blame too. I have forgotten who has (re)designed this building, so let's just take SRM for example since everyone here knows they're not good. They obviously have a lack of talent there whether it's low level B.Arch's working in the tech or design department or the project managers who oversee projects. But it isn't all the staff. I know one person who once worked for them in the past and, naturally, absolutely hated it. She had some decent talent herself and has been involved in the design of other projects in the region for other firms and most people like those buildings. But as she would often explain, while at SRM she was stuck working within the confines of what SRM wanted and more so what the developer wanted (the latter of which was usually most problematic, forcing the architects to change design plans to save money on materials and so on).
As for how you fix that, I don't know. It's tricky. Obviously, you need your city to have a culture that expects this stuff from the get-go. Berlin, Toronto, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City etc have wonderful urban spaces and while they definitely have objectively bad buildings, the cities are important enough to have a culture where developers, architects, residents etc expect their built environment to look nice and so it tends to evolve in ways that allow it to be as such. Waterloo Region kind of lacks this unfortunately (though it didn't always because look at how deep of an impact Lingwood had on the urban fabric of this region).
Design Review Panels like the one in Toronto and other cities are also extremely important. They don't guarantee every building is going to look spectacular, but they nonetheless have an impact on what gets approved. Waterloo Region really could use this though getting one set up is a lot of work. We'd need a dedicated team of engineers, architects, designers, artists etc to be willing to form such a thing...and a region/city council willing to listen to their input.
Another option is for everyday people to get involved. That's obviously asking a lot out of people, but it's an important thing to do. By attending public meetings or writing council the developer, the architects etc regarding the project they get more input. If enough people said to HIP "hey guys your Gaslight project is absolutely hideous, we demand better because this is going to be a permanent part of our everyday urban experience for the rest of our lives" then maybe they would have not cut corners and designed such a horrific podium. That's why it looks so bad, btw! The design team on that had great ideas initially, but HIP was like "lol no those materials cost too much, use prefab plz" and we ended up with that disgusting mess we see today and will be around for at the very least a century.
At the end of the day though...it's like what Wu-Tang Clan said: cash rules everything around me. It's perpetual fight between the harsh truth that money reigns supreme versus the reality that there are also deeper things in life including having a built environment that people feel good in and appreciate, whether that means nice neighbourhoods and buildings we call home or workspaces, or things like the necessity for good parks/gardens or safe streets at the expense of using every bit of land for development or endless roads.