ARCHITECTURE

PROBLEM:

MODERN ARCHITECTURE IS NOTORIOUSLY UGLY.

SOLUTION:

ABANDONMENT.

Let the walls of the cities be grown over with vegetation, pedestrian sidewalks-with weeds, fences- with bushes in flower. The more the plants will take over north american cities, the better the cities will look.

French architect, Patrick la Blank, is already doing something similar in Paris. He "enshrines" modern public houses with pieces of jungle,which he calls "vertical gardens". With astonishing mastery he grows his whimsical gardens on small patches of land.

But is it really necessary to hire an expensive landscape architect to do something that Nature would do for free on a vast scale if only we would let her have her way?

COLLATERAL PROBLEMS OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION:

"What to do in winter months, when ugliness of buildings can not be covered by plants?"

SOLUTION:

LET IT BE.

Recycling art could have been one possible emergency exit, providing a cheap and quick "fix"of beautifying ugly surfaces of modern cities. However, it is only an apparent way out .

The real problem is a massive deterioration of taste. "Ecological art" techniques used by thousands of artists and artisans who have nothing personal to express, no true style, no real feelings, will create only more ugly surfaces. Why bother? There are so many of them already!

Most human beings today have polluted minds; the least "creative" they get, the better. True solution to beautifying North American cities would be to begin a re-discovery on massive scale as to what is beautiful. It would imply that schools and universities should be filled with professors who have deep knowledge of aesthetics, it would mean that people on massive scale should have set out on a trip of re-discovery what is truly beautiful. Only when the aesthetic taste of the masses will rise, then it is would be a good moment to begin thinking of new architecture.

But true outer beauty is always closely connected to inner beauty, which is a rare flower in danger of total extinction.

Taking into consideration these considerations, the best architectural solution to beautifying modern buildings is to stop creating obstacles to Nature's and Time's destructive work.