Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

This image turns up on tv a lot lately, and for me the headquarters building of the WHO looks depressing enough of itself, even without their sobering prognostications:



The WHO are obviously busy with other things right now, but I wonder what they were thinking when they signed off on this drab building? The end facade looks like one of those tenement blocks that has airconditioning units hanging out the windows, held in place by each tenant's bit of cheap metalwork.

Worse though, for me, is the way the architect has so followed the orthodoxy of the Modern Movement regarding colour. For decades, architects were indoctrinated with the idea that applied colour was some bourgoise frivolity to be spurned. This became a dangerously popular notion because it saved money and the need to think about incorporating colour into a design. The grim results of that idea still blights most modern cities - and this WHO building, where the colours are limited to what looks like self-finished concrete (=grey) and self-finished aluminium (=grey). Even something whose function is purely ornamental (the vertical fins on the building to the right) just adds, imo, to the overall impression of cheap industrial tat.

(*steps down from soapbox and vows to drink less coffee in the mornings*)