Comments

2 responses to “from the Similarity Files – or, “haven’t we met before?” Shaklee Terraces”

1. 

   Guy

   January 23, 2009

   Well, yes, there is a total similarity and blatant copying going on here – but then is that a bad thing? Isn’t there a fine tradition of 2000+ years of Greek and Roman and Neo-Classical columned portico buildings that we could also accuse of blatant plagiarism?

   Is it not better that people copy off an excellent example, rather than attempt to make up something similar and end missing by a million miles? The image of a modern suburb comes to mind, with its screeds of nasty me-too houses, all with badly proportioned columns to a tacked on portico, with poorly conceived porches using Hume concrete sewer pipes as the structure – or even polystyrene pilasters stuck to the front of the house?

   Reply
2. 

   m-d

   January 24, 2009

   Nice of you to take umbrage on behalf etc (a nervousness for the image of the architectural profession?), but in defence of the post (and others that might follow), you misinterpret my intentions – this is sport, not criticism… You’ll note no value judgments, and no potential libel for that matter (unlike your reply!).

   Mind you, we do live in a culture that values originality and authorship, so criticism could definitely be mounted on that front. And, your Classical comparison misses the mark somewhat, given the established rigour associated with the grammar of the Classical architectural ‘language’. Some might argue that Modernism approached that, but the type of mimicry exhibited here (if indeed it is mimicry at all) is of a wholly different order to working within a set of established elements and ordering…

   Anyway, you raise some interesting issues, and I’d love to get others’ take on this – is this type of post too provocative/insulting/superficial/trite? Is unacknowledged ‘borrowing’ a sanctioned part of architectural design? What of originality and authorship? Is the emperor really wearing new clothes?

   Reply