there that's better in his essay the mcdonaldization of society richer describes the rationalization of society that is a society emphasizing efficiency predictability calculability substitution of non-human for human technology and control over uncertainty under this framework i think architectural beauty is negatively affected by increasing and continuing emphasis on rationalization which largely explains america's homogenous planned housing developments given that efficiency prioritizes function and speed modern architecture follows suit with its motto form follows function the american architect louis sullivan expressed the credo of the modernists when he said that form follows function in other words stop thinking about the way a building looks and think instead about what it does modernism aims to create standardized housing developments that can be pre-planned applied universally and demolished when deemed not useful enough although this creates easier functional designs that can be built quickly rational modernism's globalizing tendencies portray indigenous and non-modern architecture as bad and modern rational architecture as the only good remember modernist rational architecture believes that there is a one best way of building however obviously communities vary in their history culture and values so it is impossible to rationally develop a housing blueprint that perfectly captures the essence of all communities its capacity to be architecturally beautiful is limited when individuals are surrounded by architecture that poorly reflects their community's identity individuals actually internalize the negative emotions evoked by the external ugliness resulting in higher rates of dissatisfaction depression and boredom this shouldn't come off as too surprising considering we know that our external environment and its appearance has a considerable impact on the way we feel inside this building is boarded up because nobody has a use for it nobody has a use for it because nobody wants to be in it nobody wants to be in it because the thing is so damned ugly calculability exacerbates the disregard for architectural beauty by focusing on how many buildings can be built rather than how beautiful the buildings are evident in many rational projects such as gropius may and la corbustiere just please read the text on the screen i'm so sorry once again they wrote papers on what they called the minimum existence housing unit the minimum existence housing unit was the smallest possible apartment that an average family could comfortably inhabit the three architects measured success by the number of houses they could fit into one neighborhood rather than the architecture's connection with a community's identity moreover as architectural design becomes increasingly simple and repeatable non-human technology holds a greater presence where computers are able to copy past designs and create new similar ones model based software development has grown in popularity because it has a library full of source models reusable components and transformation rules that allow it to engage in automatic processes of design the creative touch of individual architects is fading despite these harms of a rationalized society ritzer says it is still preferable to the pre-rationalized way of life and i know it sounds like i've been on modernist rational forms of architecture but i probably agree after world war ii the mass rationalization of america's planned housing developments no doubt lifted millions of citizens out of poverty improved hygienic conditions and largely solved overcrowding it was very important at this time to produce as many functional houses as possible who cares if they all look the same and had no connection to the local residents thus rather than force all architects to return to a pre-rationalized way of life perhaps we should find ways to control
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