Comment by sagaro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sagaro | Hacker News Reader

A few days back there was a HN submission on everything moving towards the average. Buildings looking the same. Skylines in many cities looking similar. The cars looking similar. There are also these meme posts on twitter "why we don't build such houses/buildings today" with some photo of a 13th century castle or cathedral.

It all boils down to economics. Average is cost efficient. Standardize the raw materials. Optimize the raw material for easy storage, handling and transporting. When made this way, it is also easier to maintain, find parts (door handles, replacement faucet, switch boards etc.)

The chettinad houses are super customized. The pillars are from Burma (Myanmar) teak wood seasoned for months in sea water, the walls are polished with egg white (no paint), the tile work and the intricate carvings on the doors and pillars are all a pain when it comes to economics.

It is not just the cost to maintain them. The people with knowhow on how to maintain these are long gone. The new generation engineers only know how to build things the standard/average way with the standard materials.

Maintaining beautiful, intricate old buildings costs money and I categorize it as an expensive hobby. There are people with the means and desire to do so (myself included) but it’s not for everyone. There are people who can fix anything but it comes at a price.

I will say I wake up every day in aesthetically pleasing beauty and that, to me, is priceless. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when the latest 5 figure repair comes in.

Ultimately not much you can do with money except spend it on things you enjoy.

Spending it on the place you spend 50% of your time in sounds like a pretty good idea.

You can also work less, so that you never had that money in the first place.

I’d rather work more and get all the benefits than work less and live in modest accommodations. To each their own

I don't really care about if the house I live in is a very detailed old house or a modern sleek one, because the time I spend there I am inside and not outside looking at it.

Typically the detail is also present on the inside and hell I do spend a lot of time outside in the garden. (Tho mostly looking at my vegetables and the like.)

The same is true for your own appearance. I think the original motivation for much of the intricate housing as well as intricate body sculpturing/make up/clothes is status assertion. But as I grow older, and especially for houses where the old owners have long gone, I begin to appreciate the aesthetics and dedication put into it. In some sense, motivations aside, it's a gift to the world.

I get a lot of pleasure out of the building, it is an estate built before the city around it sprung up in this area, and we have a lot of foot-traffic. Many people take pictures, both because of the unique architecture and because I have a cat that sleeps on a dangerous-looking ledge (his favorite place, no idea why) which makes for a very interesting scene.

Sure, you don't look at the outside when you are inside. But I love walking up to it, I love playing with my kids out front, and something about owning and living in what is an extremely beautiful home has a positive effect on my mood and attitude.

Over the last decade we have spent probably $150,000 on various maintenance, but when we do them we don't cheap-out, and we try our best to ensure the improvements will last a very long time.

Definitely not for everyone, but I hope people continue to maintain the beautiful old buildings, it makes cities so nice to live in. We are not the only old estate around here and most of them are also lovingly maintained, so there is still interest.

> Ultimately not much you can do with money except spend it on things you enjoy

You could spend it to help other people, if you’re out of ideas.

A great part of British culture is just how much money and care goes into maintaining even small one family 400 year old farming houses. It also creates real estate like no other.

Unfortunately the pressures on it are the same, the globalization and standardization pressures are quite large, and culturally too not just in prices. Somehow living in a white box with large windows is more trendy culturally than in a 400 year old house. I personally just don’t get it.

I also find what they’re doing in Budapest pretty interesting, they’re basically rebuilding the entire palace at great cost (and lots of construction corruption money). But I still think it’s an extremely good idea, and proves you can still build this stuff if you want to: https://nemzetihauszmannprogram.hu/nhp-strategy-2021.pdf

> I also find what they’re doing in Budapest pretty interesting, they’re basically rebuilding the entire palace at great cost (and lots of construction corruption money).

Hungary is slowly moving away from democracy and this kind of project fits right in. That trend usually goes along with a tendency to try and awaken romantic, nationalistic feelings about the past. What better way to show Hungary's glory than restoring its palace?

This is a post about architecture and nice buildings.

You are bringing in your pseudo intellectual virtue signalling about the downfall of democracy into it.

Stop it. Go away.

Building nice buildings, and restoring heritage is nothing to do with "democracy" dying, unless you are a brainwashed left wing american, or someone who's bought the left wing american kool aid.

Go away, seriously.

I don't get your aggressive tone. Politics and architecture are related to each other. It literally says, in the document you linked, that they want to achieve a 21st century renaissance of their national identity. It's nice that the buildings get restored, I'm just adding further context.

You can't attack others like this on HN, regardless of how right you are or feel you are. We ban accounts that do, so please don't do this again.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Edit: unfortunately it turns out that you've been making a habit of posting flamewar comments and using HN primarily for political and ideological battle. We ban accounts that do that, regardless of what they're battling for. I'm not going to ban you right now because we haven't warned you before, and because I do also see some good comments in your feed. But please review the rules and stick to them from now on, so we won't have to. (Also, please don't use multiple accounts to do this.)

Exactly. Anything to distract the public while you've got your hand in their pocket: be it exciting nationalistic pride, or blaming gypsies or the EU.

> A great part of British culture is just how much money and care goes into maintaining even small one family 400 year old farming houses. It also creates real estate like no other.

And then there is also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_country_houses_...

My grans old 400+ year old cottage didn't require much money and care on the old bit. Stuff that's lasted 400 years is generally well built. The modern 1960s or so extension gave a few problems. The main structure of oak beams seems very solid - apparently in the event of a fire most other stuff can burn down and they are still left standing.

It's a shame it's hard to build similar stuff now - simple wooden frame in harmony with the nature around - due to planning regs etc.

Recent for sale thing on it https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85546632#/media?chann...

Just wait for 3d printers and CNC machines to scale up. Everyone will have a mansion and a yacht¹.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DBenchy

Advanced manufacturing and digital design technologies the very least will increase the range of styles that are economical to implement.

Mass customization has been just around the corner for my entire life. And I’m old.

I don’t think it’s a production problem. I think the sad reality is that most people don’t want the burden of choice that customization brings. So it will always be niche, and therefore higher cost.

I think mass customization is present and has been evolving your entire life.

Maybe it's half shoe sizes, or barefoot running shoe alternatives, or shoes in a rainbow of color choices. Or custom PC builds.

Maybe customization will be the end-run around the "if you want a mansion, you can only get a mcmansion like everyone else" on your street.

You can get a non-mcmansion today if you want - but you often have to be building on your own land, and not buying a building in a development, etc.

And there are additional costs associated with it, but it's not INSANELY more expensive. You go from cookie-cutter to custom design, you're adding an architect at a minimum, probably 20%-50% more expensive (of course, you can go infinitely expensive if you want).

Most people don't 'build' - even when they buy new they're buying pre-built, with maybe some decisions on color/appliances, etc.

The term has some meaning in manufacturing -- it's usually taken to mean mass produced, but with each unit customizable for each user's order.

Just having more SKUs for color/size isn't really the same thing, though that's also valuable.

And of course there are places that will make exactly the shoe you want, using your choices of colors/fabric, all in a manufactured way. But it has not caught on as many expected.

I don’t think customization is the right way to think about this. I was thinking about structures such as facades for multi-storey multitenant buildings. I don’t think consumers will want to 3d print their porches. On the other hand, if economical, architects would love probably to use leas standard shapes even in non-luxury projects.

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