Saturday, April 17, 2010

Remembering our foolish past, anticipating a foolish future

Wall Street Journal:

The piece de resistance is a breathtaking domed chamber used as the meeting place for the [French Communist Party's] Central Committee. The cupola, looking like something out of a James Bond film, is hung with thousands of white aluminum panels that mute extraneous sound and spread light uniformly throughout. With this womb-like space, Mr. Niemeyer achieved one of the most spectacular auditoriums in all of Europe. The doors leading into the chamber are set at an angle and are pneumatically controlled.
...
The Marxist architect, awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963 in part because of his ideology and the Pritzker Prize in 1988 despite it, deemed his building "not merely a good example of architecture, but a sign of the socialist society that is already being imposed with the force of historical necessity."

Lend enough power to any idea, what you end up with is stupidity.

2 comments:

almostinfamous said...

i love that closing comment.

Ray said...

Closing comment = priceless. I am still chuckling about it a day later.