The Spanish Architecture exhibition at Moma reveals the startling fact that, despite its relatively small size, there are more innovative new buildings being built in Spain than in the whole of the US.
A few years ago, this was not the case. America was the architectural capital of the world in the 20th century, with Chicago its leader in academic terms, but New York, winner of the people’s choice award.
Every day as I walk around New York I marvel not just at the buildings but the people that had both the balls and, simultaneously, the sensibility to build them. Yet New York is becoming a living museum of the 20th Century, if a design as radical as the Chrysler Building was submitted today, it would likely not get built.
Perhaps this is innevitable and not all bad. When Duchamps’ Large Glass was broken in transport – he claimed that it was now perfect. Perhaps a New York skyline dominated once again by the 1930s in the most tragic fashion is a final ‘fuck you’ to terrorism, New York is framed perfectly in Art-Deco glory a perfect antique version of the new and appreciable in the way that only vintage things really can be.
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tags: [architecture]