Quote:
Originally Posted by Lisnaholic
Wow! I'm being quoted by Yac! This is a total honour. I don't suppose any of us know about the architecture of Poland, so I hope you'll post us some more pics.
And your photos are very interesting; they show how, with a little bit of paint, vegetation and imagination, our cities could look so much better, which in all seriousness, can really lift peoples' spirits. There is also an immediate bonus, in the UK at least, of reduced vandalism if people are given a reason to be proud of where they live. I particularly liked the artwork in your first photo, Yac, with it's discreet pattern and Dali-style animal: compared to the annonymous flats of Zagreb, how much nicer to be able to say, "My flat is the one above the antlers." (Of course not so cool for the guy who has to say, "Yeah, I live in the moose's butt.")
^ I've never seen Ibrox Park, but you're right about the symmetry, etc. I am particularly impressed with the curved stair towers that've been added on; a pleasing shape, clearly from a different era, but blending into the original design. That's not an easy thing to get right.
^ You are very well informed, MLM. I think you have given the little-known Archibald Leitch the honour of being the first architect to get his own personal name check in this thread!
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Wut. I don't know about it being an honor
But I can share some info on our architecture
There's a lot of "commie blocks" in Poland, and I mean A LOT. The country was almost literally razed to the ground during ww2, there were millions of homeless people after that, so something needed to be done.
Most were created using prefabricated concrete elements and looked buttugly from the start. A couple of years ago everybody was sure these building will start collapsing, many are 50+ years old and "they were never designed to last this long"... People were doing their best to move away.
Now ? Now that cities started actually caring about the way they look, now that they started renovating these buildings along with the surroundings, it doesn't look half bad. The fact that steel reinforced concrete, when properly maintained, turns out to have amazing longevity doesn't hurt either
Here's some examples of what is being done to these buildings, it's still not as common as I'd like, but if they don't get a mural, they at least get proper insulation and a new paintjob, so it's no longer an eyesore. I'll put these photos inside a spoiler tag as some are quite big.