Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?
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Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?I've been looking at pictures of campuses of universities in the UK and some of the most beautiful (besides Oxbridge) are Royal Holloway, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, UCL and others. However, nearly all of the campuses just has ONE architecturally beautiful building.
For example, Founders building at Royal Holloway is simply stunning and even beats Oxford/Cambridge, IMO, but the rest of the campus buildings aren't beautiful at ALL. Same goes for Nottingham and other unit.
Why can't all buildings on the campus look the same? Why can't there be another Founders building at RHUL instead of those white concrete eyesores?
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?It's more convenient to build ugly buildings?
Most people consider Oxford, Cambridge, and the Scottish ancients beautiful, and there are really very few other universities that have buildings like theirs because they were all built before the 17th century. The Victorian ones are pretty too, but it's the mid 20th century buildings that are ugly. That square architecture, plate glass style with lots of concrete was just the way all buildings were being made half a century back. So... I suppose, to answer your question, people just can't make those castle-y buildings again, it's beautiful but belongs to antiquity and is inconvenient for modern builders.
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?I think it depends on what you find attractive. I've been to Oxford and Cambridge (the cities) and I didn't rate the university buildings at either, I hate all that old architecture, I much prefer modern places.
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?Because building architecture reflects the time it was commissioned and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many academic buildings were built for function, not the aesthetic and to a budget. Only time will tell if a building is deemed to be beautiful in the future, many listed buildings were at the time they were built considered to be monstrosities.
Plus you tend not to have the luxury of space around a building , which allows a building to be considered in isolation, without fighting visually with other styles of building. -
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?Oxbridge have had a thousand years of state patronage to acquire all of the nice buildings; more recent universities have had much less money. They also have a far larger proportion of buildings constructed after WWII, which are generally considered much uglier.
This isn't so much the case in the US where universities are mainly built on the donations of rich alumni, there has been much less of an elite group monopolising all the money, and they have tended to choose faux-Oxbridge architecture to appeal to prospective students, rather than hideous brutalist concrete structures or lowest-bidder tower blocks.Last edited by Observatory; 17-07-2012 at 15:30. -
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?My uni had a beautiful building too, but just the one. It was the old college building (from before it had university status, it's hundreds of years old), but considering it's a modern university the rets of the buildings are therefore modern.
Nothing wrong with it really; apart from the very old universities, there's no reason that others can aquire such old, beautiful structures. -
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?Imo they tried make a lot of postwar uni buildings look nice, or at least interesting. A lot less ugly and repetative stalinist than comprehensive schools and a lot of other public buildings of that era.
Post 1990 build seems to have settled on a drab industrial estate aesthetic. -
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?Harvard is interesting because Corbusier designed some of the buildings. Nottingham is interesting because some of the modern buildings are well designed.(Original post by Joinedup)
Imo they tried make a lot of postwar uni buildings look nice, or at least interesting. A lot less ugly and repetative stalinist than comprehensive schools and a lot of other public buildings of that era.
Post 1990 build seems to have settled on a drab industrial estate aesthetic.
Churchill said
“There is no doubt whatever about the influence of architecture and structure upon human character and action. We make our buildings and afterwards they make us. They regulate the course of our lives.”
I think young architects should be asked to design university buildings so that they can be pleasant, wacky, light, airy places which students remember with affection for the rest of their lives -
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?MIT in the US has to be the most ugly. What were they thinking?
The architecture of a university is important in my opinion as it works to inspire.
To add to the OP's list: Queens Belfast, Liverpool, Newcastle - all proper uni's basically
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?Because universities were built at different times and their architecture reflects that. I mean, the uni I'm going to (UEA), let's be honest, is not exactly a pretty place, built in the 60's. The campus is stunning, I won't lie, but the buildings themselves? Awful. Except the ziggurats, quirky, brilliant buildings that they are. And considering I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to beautiful buildings, it's a testament to how much I like the place really. Can I add Cardiff to the list of beautiful uni's? Because it is. But there's more to universities than the architecture.
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?and manchester, glasgow, aberdeen and edinburgh.(Original post by Meat is Murder)
MIT in the US has to be the most ugly. What were they thinking?
The architecture of a university is important in my opinion as it works to inspire.
To add to the OP's list: Queens Belfast, Liverpool, Newcastle - all proper uni's basically
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Re: Why can't all universities have good-looking buildings?Truly despicable isn't it, sometimes I wonder how they are allowed to teach in such shacks. If I were you I'd write a strongly worded letter to a local/national newspaper and then they might sort themselves out.
Most people consider Oxford, Cambridge, and the Scottish ancients beautiful, and there are really very few other universities that have buildings like theirs because they were all built before the 17th century. The Victorian ones are pretty too, but it's the mid 20th century buildings that are ugly. That square architecture, plate glass style with lots of concrete was just the way all buildings were being made half a century back. So... I suppose, to answer your question, people just can't make those castle-y buildings again, it's beautiful but belongs to antiquity and is inconvenient for modern builders.
