MODERN ARCHITECTURE – It´s a beauty?

Since 1950´s, architects have been designing cold, impersonal structures that have changed the areas where they are located – often for the worse. Some even say that crime, vandalism and despair have been a direct result of living in such heartless places…

But do modern buildings have to be heartless? Is all modern design concerned only with cheap materials and quick completion dates? Perhaps not… Think of the Sydney Opera House, completed in 1973. It was laughed at during its planning and construction, but it has since become one of the great architectural landmarks of the world.

Designed by a Dane named Utzon, the structure has a roof that resembles the sails of boats in the harbor below. It has been criticized for being both ugly and useless. But once it was completed, it quickly became the much loved symbol of a great city, and it is today, too.

Its final cost was some $ 102 million dollars, well over the $ 7 million originally estimated, and it took 19 years to complete rather than the five years planned. Although its revolutionary design is stunning from the outside, it is too small to stage large-scale operas – something of a disadvantage in an opera house!

So what is the verdict on modern architecture? The answer is far from clear. In Paris modernistic grass pyramid built at the front of the historic Louvre museum in the 1980´s is still controversial. The giant Canary Wharf tower in London was designed to combine beauty with practical offices, but now stands mostly empty and unloved.

Will people come to love these modern structures as they do the Eiffel Tower? Or have ordinary people had enough of modern design, and want ordinary-sized buildings? We will see it soon in Prague…Do you think the new building of the Library at Letná will suit there or should be this project rejected? What is your opinion? Waiting for your ideas…

Completion = dokončení
Concerned with = odpovědný za
Dane = Dán
Despair = zoufalství, beznaděj, zkleslost
Disadvantage = nevýhoda
Estimate = odhadovat, předpokládat, ocenit
Giant = obří, obrovský, velikánský
Harbor = přístav
Heartless = bezcitný, nelítostný, krutý, nemilosrdný, nehostinný
Laugh at = smát se (komu, čemu)
Landmark = mezník, pamětihodnost, význačný bod v krajině
Opinion = názor
Ordinary = obyčejný, běžný, normální
Perhaps = snad, možná
Reject = odmítnout
Resemble = podobat se, připomínat
Result = výsledek
Roof = střecha
Stunning = ohromující, oslňující, senzační
Suit = padnout, hodit se
Ugly = ošklivý
Unloved = nemilovaný
Useless = zbytčný, neužitečný, nepotřebný, bezúčelný
Wharf = dok, přístaviště, molo