{"id":61107,"date":"2025-10-09T13:17:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61107"},"modified":"2025-10-18T23:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:25:49","slug":"how-did-the-world-get-so-ugly-a-video-criticizes-the-boring-modern-urban-aesthetic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/10\/09\/how-did-the-world-get-so-ugly-a-video-criticizes-the-boring-modern-urban-aesthetic\/","title":{"rendered":"'How did the world get so ugly?' A video criticizes the 'boring' modern urban aesthetic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world of art, design, and architecture, there has been a long-standing debate about the balance between aesthetics and functionality.<\/p>\n

The beautiful Spanish castle of Paronella that was built by hand in Australia<\/a><\/rel>
\nBig Ben: the interior and functioning of the London's famous Clock Tower<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

We live in a world where functionality has won the battle over aesthetics<\/strong>, especially in urban design. This is particularly evident in buildings constructed in any city since the 1960s and 1970s, when what we might call architectural \"ugliness\"<\/strong> took over, filling our cities with buildings that lack even the slightest grace and beauty.<\/p>\n

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One of the buildings built on Arenal Street in Vigo in the 19th century, in what is known as the Catalan quarter of the city. These buildings were constructed by Catalan canning company owners who settled in the city in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This quarter has some of the city's most beautiful buildings (Photo): Google Stree View).<\/div>\n

We need to understand the reason why this happened. That \"ugliness\" arose from the need to construct a large number of buildings in a short period of time.<\/strong> The demographic \"baby boom\" that occurred in the middle of the last century led to a huge demand for housing and contributed to its cheapness, leading to dull facades. Cheap, quickly constructed buildings were needed,<\/strong> a premise that still leads to architectural slops today, but to a lesser extent, due to the current demographic crisis and the lower demand for housing compared to the aforementioned decades.<\/p>\n

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Residential buildings on Avenida de la Gran V\u00eda in Vigo, an example of the boring buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s to meet the huge demand for housing generated by the \"baby boom\" of that time (Photo: Google Stree View).<\/div>\n

On this topic, Sheehan Quirke<\/strong>, known on Twitter as @culturaltutor<\/a> (with 1.7 million followers), has published an interesting YouTube video entitled \"How did the world get so ugly?\"<\/strong>, in which he criticizes modern urban aesthetics as \"ugly\" and \"boring\" and points out the values \u200b\u200bit represents compared to the beautiful Victorian style that was applied in the city of London in the 19th century:<\/p>\n