Architecture shapes humanity

Ever since I started designing old cityscapes that restore the lost faces of many Dutch cities, I have felt the urge to pay more attention to investigating why the world has changed so much compared to a century ago. Modernism has swept through many cities like a tornado, causing irreparable damage in many places and leaving many scars on what remains.

Why have humans drifted so far from something that was so precious to us and gave us a connection to who we are as humans? If anything can characterize humanity, it is architecture. It shows who we are and what makes us unique. Modernism, which is increasingly alienating us from ourselves, seems to be plunging us into an ever-deepening abyss from which we don't seem to be able to emerge. The cold edifices, mostly of glass and concrete, are turning us into solitary beings who no longer seem to recognize each other.

Modernism is so deeply rooted in our system that we have turned against the old, which has shaped us for thousands of years. We no longer find it fitting in our lives and readily replace it with modern colossi that continually outdo each other in ugliness. Convincing humanity of this madness seems an impossible mission; the black and white monstrosity that slowly deprives all streets of color, puts the last bit of color under pressure.

How do you give people a sight of color again and that which gives people real warmth and bonding? In my eyes, it's purely by showing and writing about it. Judging, but not convincing. Everyone has the freedom to find something beautiful or ugly. Visit this blog to look at the madness of the day; what we as humans place in cities today and what we once shaped. My aversion to modernism is something I will never conceal, so I am certainly biased.