From Kunsthaus to Your House

"In fact, everyday good architecture should not even be about the building, it should be about the people. If the building isn't intended as some kind of public monument or centerpiece, it shouldn't draw much attention to itself. Frank Gehry is a wanton violator of this rule: when he decided to design homes for the Lower Ninth Ward in post-Katrina New Orleans, he created a discordant batch of hyper-contemporary houses that 'riffed' on the region’s traditional vernacular architecture. Rather than being concerned to give people comfortable houses that fit in with their surroundings and suited the preferences of the residents, Gehry designed houses that screamed for attention and were fundamentally about themselves rather than about the people of the city he ostensibly cared about. Good buildings recede seamlessly into their surroundings; Gehrys blare like an industrial klaxon."

Brianna Rennix and Nathan J. Robinson at Current Affairs criticize contemporary architecture.