While I do not like all of the buildings shown here, I think it's a lot more interesting than the glass-and-steel facades or the clinically sterile design (not limited to interieur design) we have nowadays.
Reminds me of wandering around Tokyo in the early 2000s. You’d get off a train somewhere and with no fanfare or warning find this incredible looking architecture that no one had even written about English.
we travelled around japan, tokyo included, earlier this year and this was one of the things we loved doing. you just walk everywhere and you'll find really interesting architecture in family houses, made of concrete.
Sounds good - I found it spoils to fun to read too much about a destination (or worse: to streetview it) I am going to for vacation. It takes away the joy of discovery and surprise.
It is interesting that many of these are single business buildings like a dentist office or a car dealership. When I think of unique architecture in the USA, I think of multistory buildings or museums.
>“ but with none of the candy playfulness of Memphis or Graves, instead a sombre sadness inflects all his designs...”
How does one see sadness in a design? I don’t know the history of the architect, so I could be wrong, but doubt an architect would build something built to be inhabited to be imbued with notes of sadness.
On the left, a picture of a swole doge labeled "Japanese architect building a little dental office in the 1980s".
Balloon: "We will have custom framing on the oversize porthole windows on all floors, riveted metal bands on the first two floors to create a rhythm, before the turrets erupt out of inverted cones on the third floor, suggesting teeth, but also the prows of ships swept by the wind, it's going to be awesome!"
On the right, a picture of a sad little doge labeled "American architect building an 80 million dollar skyscraper in the 2000s".
Balloon: "wE cAn'T hAVe dEcORatiON it'S TOo eXPEnsIvE ;_;"
(Speaking of bad looks, here is a render image of a Boring Company tunnel station: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1285819565407002624 )