[NicolBolas]

I'd take the Lotus and Lilac Park that have been criticized so much any day over this almost featureless white box. I don't understand how people can complain about 'boring uninspired designs' and then praise something like this

I agree this is terrible. If I can design a building by only using Microsoft Excel cell border functions then we shouldn't praise it.

 

[Glenco]

I agree this is terrible. If I can design a building by only using Microsoft Excel cell border functions then we shouldn't praise it.

Give it a 6

 

[constance_chlore]

I'd take the Lotus and Lilac Park that have been criticized so much any day over this almost featureless white box. I don't understand how people can complain about 'boring uninspired designs' and then praise something like this

I'm all for ornamentation, but I don't think adding a bunch of splashes of color just for the hell of it (to keep it from looking too 'plain') is the way to go. Tons of buildings in Edmonton are needlessly busy, and it's tacky.

More broadly—architecture is a language, and a 'featureless white box' is something that stands for something architecturally. You can go to any German city and see many buildings that look like this render and understand the milieu from which they emerged, and to replicate that elsewhere might be taken (convincingly or not) as an aspiration towards the same ideals that animated that milieu.

There will be positives to having Lotus and Lilac Park downtown, and I wouldn't say they are functionally suburban developments, but they sure look suburban—or like the off-campus housing near any university circa 2015.

 

[David A]

I haven't been to Germany, but from many pictures I have seen I find the some of those buildings a bit plain and boring, although they seem quite functional.

This seems to be an era where we are almost afraid of colour. I feel we should have more, but I would agree we don't know how to use it well and a strip or splash or colour does not usually improve bad design.

 

[Agard]

I'm all for ornamentation, but I don't think adding a bunch of splashes of color just for the hell of it (to keep it from looking too 'plain') is the way to go. Tons of buildings in Edmonton are needlessly busy, and it's tacky.

More broadly—architecture is a language, and a 'featureless white box' is something that stands for something architecturally. You can go to any German city and see many buildings that look like this render and understand the milieu from which they emerged, and to replicate that elsewhere might be taken (convincingly or not) as an aspiration towards the same ideals that animated that milieu.

There will be positives to having Lotus and Lilac Park downtown, and I wouldn't say they are functionally suburban developments, but they sure look suburban—or like the off-campus housing near any university circa 2015.

The only thing it stands for in my mind is that the architect was too scared to try anything more interesting. From the renders I wouldn't call this building ugly but it's pretty uninspired. Looking at Ever Red's other work tells me this design is not born out of the desire to make a statement, it was just an easy design to make that looks fine enough to avoid being a local joke