160. Restoring Traditional Architecture - Zach the Architect Interview

The art of architecture has been corrupted. It is no longer aiming at beauty, but either purely utility or novelty. Instead of aspiring to lift up people’s hearts and minds to beauty, ugliness that adheres to leftist ideology is put forth as architecture. So, I talked with an architect about the problems he sees with the art and the industry – as well as some solutions to the problems he sees.

Several Problems with the State of Architecture:

Architecture schools are ideologically possessed
Modernism encourages novelty over beauty
Traditionalism is scoffed at or ignored
Architects in the professional world are beholden to their clients
Traditional buildings are expensive to build

“The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.”
–Frank Lloyd Wright

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The goal of the architect should be to combine beauty and functionality. However, that’s not what we find. What we often get instead is insolent designs, many of which serve no other purpose than inflating the architect’s ego. So, we need people to step up and push for beautiful architecture again. Then, we might actually see a change.

Buildings like Penn Station attract our protective instincts not only because of their beauty but because we fear what will come to replace them.
-Roger Scruton

Examples of Traditional Architecture:

Example of Traditional Pillars and Architecture — Check out these examples of beautiful architecture.

Check out these examples of beautiful architecture.

What Solutions Are Available?

Well, the fact is that solutions will require a lot of energy and determination to bear fruit. With dedicated and talented people, things can change. Here are a few things Zach and I discussed. There are surely more potential solutions, but I figured it would be good to offer these for your consideration.

Firstly, we can promote traditional schools of architecture like Notre Dame’s. Secondly, professional architects should educate the next generation in the traditional way. This is easy to do with cheap online courses. I believe there are solutions, but I also don’t have all the answers. If you listen to the episode and have your own solutions, let me know.

Some of the accounts mentioned in this podcast: