I’ve always been a fan of beautiful things. From design to form, I believe we should create things that have beauty when we create. Post-modern archetecture with its fractured buildings that look as if half the building would collapse at any moment are beautiful- they point to something else; another idea.
Something that has always gotten me frustrated about America is its lack of beauty in creative process. Sure there are the Frank Lloyd Wrights, but it is so evident that we are a pragmatic culture. Chicago has always evidenced this to me:
I do not believe that this problem will last forever. There is a generation being brought up appreciating more beauty. This is evidenced by the neo-business technology startups and a lot of the buildings they reside in and office spaces they design.
America has always been a place where beauty is secondary to function. I like the changes is design that we are seeing. But it will take a lot of molehills to move the mountains of pragmatism that has made our country functionally successful in the terraverse.