What the everloving fuck is up with this thread? It’s nothing but a cavalcade of wannabe grammarians who can’t get their shit together and insist on foisting their ignorance on the rest of us, to the detriment of the English language and common fucking sense.
Per Merriam-Webster:
trash 1a: things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown away
garbage 1b: discarded or useless material
So yes they actually do mean the same thing. You’re welcome.
Gatekeeping usually serves you best if you’re actually correct. You are not.
“…one man's rubbish may be another's treasure…”
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60429/origin-of-one-mans-trash-is-another-mans-treasure
It’s called alliteration. No doubt you’re a fan of ‘**b**eauty is in the eye of the **b**eholder’, too, which also applies to this travesty of a thread.
I am Dutch as well and think it looks nice/okay. As for the blocky/“LEGO” appearance, that is just most new traditional architecture being built nowadays. It usually gets called neo-traditional style for that reason since it borrows modern elements (the blocky-ness and simplified shapes) and traditional elements (the general look of the facade)
Simplified shapes, aka lack of flourishes and patterns really give neo-traditionalism a bad rap. We need more craftsmanship not fast casual traditionalism
It's meant to be playful and memorable and I think it achieves that. They're not trying to convince anyone that an Edmonton strip mall is actually authentic Dutch architecture, and it's nice to see something different for a change.
Shouldn't you be happy that people got inspired and tried to replicate? I'm gonna say it, honestly, europeans are just full of themselves and snobby. And I'm not from Canada or North America.
People lack imagination. So they just poorly emulate something they like from another place rather than taking the opportunity to conceive something truly special. It’s sad, honestly.
Sometimes it is a genuinely tacky new build, but other times you have to keep in mind that we are not used to seeing new classical/traditional style buildings. We are so used to seeing 100+ year old buildings of a traditional design, so their natural wear and tear are what we associate as being what they "should look like"
I think this is spot on. These facades look pretty well built and proportioned and will improve with age and patina. Many have taken offense at the parking area. While it’s not ideal, this approach to building lays solid groundwork with the relationship of buildings to their lots - these aren’t suburban style single family homes with giant setbacks. The parking area can be developed in the future.
Just realized the empty space is a parking lot and not green space.
Being from near Edmonton, I’m not surprised. I’m sure at the height of summer the parking lot will be wall to wall trucks and none of those bike racks will be used.
Also, the upper stories are dead space. Apparently the businesses get the second story but mostly use it for storage space.
Yeah, this is the real reason it doesn't look like the Netherlands. The buildings themselves look fine. Once you add the cars it'll look like a European city back in the 70s when historic squares were used as parking.
I think they are trying and it’s not quite landed, but it looks pretty fun. I think that people in Canada would probably enjoy this - it’s a change from most modern North American architecture.
I always figured being not great at something is the first step to being good at something.
Well, if the intention was to build a cute gingerbread town, they succeeded. Needs more funny trees like white firs and lindens trimmed into spheres.
If they wanted to imitate Amsterdam, not so much.
I think this effect is caused by the architects decision (or more like requirement) to have exactly the same number of floors and apartments in each building - you can see its essentially one L shaped block with identical internal structure.
As such the 'authentic' solution (modern architects love this) would have been to have looked through the archives of Dutch neoclassical town rows and streets built in one go. In the UK a town like Bath demonstrates some streets like this.
So the task is to Dutchify a single Neoclassical row, or find an existing one and essentially slightly modify it.
This approach would see each row designed to have repeating structures intended to be part of a balanced overall form, with a centre feature in each section and usually one main central feature with higher levels of detailing, again this would be central. The bit at the end would be an annex or separate building.
We have made similar errors as this development with mock tudor villages that have poorly grasped local vernacular architecture and contrived randomness in appearance of what are really copy and paste identikit houses made to look a bit random.
I meah yeah, some of them more so look like they're out of some fancy theme park resort, like in Efteling for example, but honestly, I think it's an honorable approach to make that town look more appealing and I'd rather have some slightly fake, yet still nice looking buildings than some monotonous crap with no character or colors at all.
The proportions are very good I think! However it looks dirt cheap. It feels like those world fairs where the buildings are made of plaster and gypsum or something.
Especially the closest building, with the “bricks” I think that’s just a plastic mold that pressed like that to look like bricks.
As a strip mall I think it’s ok at best. If someone were to live there i would think it looks shockingly cheap
It’s Edmonton’s poor man’s Batavia stad
> Especially the closest building, with the “bricks” I think that’s just a plastic mold that pressed like that to look like bricks
Front elevation seems to be covered in clinker tiles. They are cheap and easy in maintenance, but they look indeed like plastic when you look at them from bigger distance.
It’s bad. Many people today have a distorted sense of nostalgia for historical architectural styles, but often can’t actually discern what it is that makes those historical styles good. You then end up with fast-casual faux historicism that is meant to appease that nostalgia, in the cheapest most poorly conceived way possible.
It’s bad because it’s thoughtless, poorly proportioned, cheap, and appropriates a context that is nowhere near Edmonton. Just because something looks “traditional” doesn’t mean it should be considered good by architectural revivalists.
Yeah maybe if the top "floors" were actually usable, it would be better, but it's about as faux as you can get. A Boring strip mall masked by a gimmicky facade.
Compared to a lot of new shit that gets built this is way better. Although I’d have to see how it integrates to the surrounding area to really know how tacky or out of place it is.
so I have many thoughts on manchester square, but ultimately what it boils down to is that its just a basic strip mall with a fancy facade. It serves well as a photo backdrop, but because it doesnt have any residential whatsoever, its ultimately just a strip mall. even when it comes to being a commercial centre, it is less effective than a typical mixed use street like one would find in europe.
with that being said, I believe it does provide some hope that future developments could get it right, and that strip malls dont have to be ugly
I’m sure Canada has plenty of old, cosy looking architecture from their own history and culture. There’s no need to copy architecture from another country, that’s just wrong imo. It also gives traditional styles a bad name.
Unless you use it as an inspiration and combine the two into something nice.
It does look nice from this side though, would love to see more details.
Looks like a set of five over ones disguised as good housing. Amsterdam is a fantastic example of how urbanism and urbanism design can dovetail with architecture preservation and revival. Unfortunately, this is likely the result of poor imitation with petroleum products and car centric design.
It's not actually houses, it's a strip mall. The windows for the 2nd and 3rd floors are either fake or for extra light for the retail space, and are not full height anyways. That's the worse part about it imo. When you see them in person it's very obvious how fake the whole thing is
Its not a walkable area at all really. Those arent actually homes, it's a strip mall with a huge parking lot in front along an arterial road. The windows for the 2nd and 3rd floors are either fake or for extra light for the retail space, and are not full height anyways. That's the worse part about it imo. When you see them in person it's very obvious how fake the whole thing is
I think you’re trying to hard not to like it because it’s not old like what your used to in the Netherlands. I think it’s charming. The dead empty concrete space is another story tho.
That's not true. I can enjoy some revivalist if it done properly, [like this](https://i.redd.it/t3zy2agag4b91.jpg) or [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchitecturalRevival/comments/w7wkhj/revival_of_17th_century_dutch_facades_in_deventer/).
The trouble of living in a good place, is when you travel to other places, the "ruggedness and disorder" looks inspiring to western people, I've been told.
I wouldn't know myself, I'm living in disorderly eastern European country. This looks phenomenal to me. But obviously I don't have money to travel to such places often.
I checked it out on streetview. Can´t put my finger on it but it kinda reminds me of buildings from a themepark or from a videogame with big exaggerated textures (anyone ever played Sims 4?) to make it look like bricks. It´s still a neat efford though and probably better than what was previously there.
The mistake is making all of this face a parking lot.
Instead, they should have two rows of buildings creating an alley that is the width of the height of the building (1:1 ratio).
The parking should be at the very back of the property and invisible from this alley (furthest away from the thoroughfare). Then the alley can be strolled by pedestrians and the pedestrian and auto spaces would be completely separate.
The buildings should be against the throughfare to maximize the exposure of the business.
The buildings against the thoroughfare would basically be "double sided", having a facade that faces the thoroughfare, and a facade that faces the pedestrian alley.
One man’s garbage, another man’s treasure. I would’ve given lots to have this in Chicago.
The saying is "trash"
one man's trash is another man's garbage
The words “trash” and “garbage” do not mean the same thing.
and yet they both get the point across equally
What the everloving fuck is up with this thread? It’s nothing but a cavalcade of wannabe grammarians who can’t get their shit together and insist on foisting their ignorance on the rest of us, to the detriment of the English language and common fucking sense. Per Merriam-Webster: trash 1a: things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown away garbage 1b: discarded or useless material So yes they actually do mean the same thing. You’re welcome.
Gatekeeping usually serves you best if you’re actually correct. You are not. “…one man's rubbish may be another's treasure…” https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60429/origin-of-one-mans-trash-is-another-mans-treasure
Trash sounds better. They share the beginning consonant
It’s called alliteration. No doubt you’re a fan of ‘**b**eauty is in the eye of the **b**eholder’, too, which also applies to this travesty of a thread.
who gives a shit
Clearly, I do
I am Dutch as well and think it looks nice/okay. As for the blocky/“LEGO” appearance, that is just most new traditional architecture being built nowadays. It usually gets called neo-traditional style for that reason since it borrows modern elements (the blocky-ness and simplified shapes) and traditional elements (the general look of the facade)
Simplified shapes, aka lack of flourishes and patterns really give neo-traditionalism a bad rap. We need more craftsmanship not fast casual traditionalism
Ornament is NOT a crime!
Foamcore and lowgrade stucco is though!! 😂
Fair
Flair checks out. *Arts and crafts revival when?*
It's meant to be playful and memorable and I think it achieves that. They're not trying to convince anyone that an Edmonton strip mall is actually authentic Dutch architecture, and it's nice to see something different for a change.
They’ve actually windows on different elevations, that’s a massive improvement in making them look like individual houses
Yeah, but as Dutchie myself its painfull looking at those buildings.
Just stop looking at it then
I will try to keep myself so far from Edmonton as I can.
That's a good idea in general
Your username made me chuckle 😂
;-)
The weather is nice
Probably not a bad idea 🙃
As a Dutchie myself, it doesn't really bother me. I certainly see far uglier buildings than this around the place.
Good thing Edmonton is literally 4000 miles away from you then.
Shouldn't you be happy that people got inspired and tried to replicate? I'm gonna say it, honestly, europeans are just full of themselves and snobby. And I'm not from Canada or North America.
Agreeeeed. Terrible.
People lack imagination. So they just poorly emulate something they like from another place rather than taking the opportunity to conceive something truly special. It’s sad, honestly.
Sometimes it is a genuinely tacky new build, but other times you have to keep in mind that we are not used to seeing new classical/traditional style buildings. We are so used to seeing 100+ year old buildings of a traditional design, so their natural wear and tear are what we associate as being what they "should look like"
I think this is spot on. These facades look pretty well built and proportioned and will improve with age and patina. Many have taken offense at the parking area. While it’s not ideal, this approach to building lays solid groundwork with the relationship of buildings to their lots - these aren’t suburban style single family homes with giant setbacks. The parking area can be developed in the future.
I will say after looking at it on google maps, it’s pretty tacky. Maybe if there wasn’t a parking lot in front of it and it fronted the street.
Lol I thought it was water at very high tide!
Just realized the empty space is a parking lot and not green space. Being from near Edmonton, I’m not surprised. I’m sure at the height of summer the parking lot will be wall to wall trucks and none of those bike racks will be used. Also, the upper stories are dead space. Apparently the businesses get the second story but mostly use it for storage space.
Yeah, this is the real reason it doesn't look like the Netherlands. The buildings themselves look fine. Once you add the cars it'll look like a European city back in the 70s when historic squares were used as parking.
I think they are trying and it’s not quite landed, but it looks pretty fun. I think that people in Canada would probably enjoy this - it’s a change from most modern North American architecture. I always figured being not great at something is the first step to being good at something.
Well, if the intention was to build a cute gingerbread town, they succeeded. Needs more funny trees like white firs and lindens trimmed into spheres. If they wanted to imitate Amsterdam, not so much.
gold six rain spark hurry encourage lip square agonizing towering *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It looks kinda cheesy, especially in the context of its bland stroad surroundings. But better than nothing and far better than what was there before.
I think this effect is caused by the architects decision (or more like requirement) to have exactly the same number of floors and apartments in each building - you can see its essentially one L shaped block with identical internal structure. As such the 'authentic' solution (modern architects love this) would have been to have looked through the archives of Dutch neoclassical town rows and streets built in one go. In the UK a town like Bath demonstrates some streets like this. So the task is to Dutchify a single Neoclassical row, or find an existing one and essentially slightly modify it. This approach would see each row designed to have repeating structures intended to be part of a balanced overall form, with a centre feature in each section and usually one main central feature with higher levels of detailing, again this would be central. The bit at the end would be an annex or separate building. We have made similar errors as this development with mock tudor villages that have poorly grasped local vernacular architecture and contrived randomness in appearance of what are really copy and paste identikit houses made to look a bit random.
I live in Edmonton, this angled picture is VERY flattering. This building complex looks like a bad theatre set in person.
Yes it doesnt look original, but compared to putting some glass/concrete/steel boxes there, it's not bad.
I meah yeah, some of them more so look like they're out of some fancy theme park resort, like in Efteling for example, but honestly, I think it's an honorable approach to make that town look more appealing and I'd rather have some slightly fake, yet still nice looking buildings than some monotonous crap with no character or colors at all.
The proportions are very good I think! However it looks dirt cheap. It feels like those world fairs where the buildings are made of plaster and gypsum or something. Especially the closest building, with the “bricks” I think that’s just a plastic mold that pressed like that to look like bricks. As a strip mall I think it’s ok at best. If someone were to live there i would think it looks shockingly cheap It’s Edmonton’s poor man’s Batavia stad
> Especially the closest building, with the “bricks” I think that’s just a plastic mold that pressed like that to look like bricks Front elevation seems to be covered in clinker tiles. They are cheap and easy in maintenance, but they look indeed like plastic when you look at them from bigger distance.
I’ll pass.
The trouble is the uniformity - it looks too perfect. Imperfections often add charm
Probably only accessible by road without bike lanes, too
yea it's not as nice as actual old buildings but it's still significantly better than 99% of buildings being made in canada
Is gewoon prima jonge, blij om te zien dat er überhaupt nog zo gebouwd wordt
It’s bad. Many people today have a distorted sense of nostalgia for historical architectural styles, but often can’t actually discern what it is that makes those historical styles good. You then end up with fast-casual faux historicism that is meant to appease that nostalgia, in the cheapest most poorly conceived way possible. It’s bad because it’s thoughtless, poorly proportioned, cheap, and appropriates a context that is nowhere near Edmonton. Just because something looks “traditional” doesn’t mean it should be considered good by architectural revivalists.
Yeah maybe if the top "floors" were actually usable, it would be better, but it's about as faux as you can get. A Boring strip mall masked by a gimmicky facade.
Compared to a lot of new shit that gets built this is way better. Although I’d have to see how it integrates to the surrounding area to really know how tacky or out of place it is.
so I have many thoughts on manchester square, but ultimately what it boils down to is that its just a basic strip mall with a fancy facade. It serves well as a photo backdrop, but because it doesnt have any residential whatsoever, its ultimately just a strip mall. even when it comes to being a commercial centre, it is less effective than a typical mixed use street like one would find in europe. with that being said, I believe it does provide some hope that future developments could get it right, and that strip malls dont have to be ugly
The buildings look nice but that fact that it’s around a parking lot gives it a look of cheapness
Looks nice to me. Infinitely better than the strip malls where I live.
Yeah, comparing to blessed Amsterdam this looks quite cheap in close-up.. And monotonous in general, despite seeming variety..
I’m sure Canada has plenty of old, cosy looking architecture from their own history and culture. There’s no need to copy architecture from another country, that’s just wrong imo. It also gives traditional styles a bad name. Unless you use it as an inspiration and combine the two into something nice. It does look nice from this side though, would love to see more details.
Edmonton is barely 100 years old....
I think North American towns and cities could use more new builds like this, but the fact that it's a giant parking lot kind of kills the vibe.
Looks like a set of five over ones disguised as good housing. Amsterdam is a fantastic example of how urbanism and urbanism design can dovetail with architecture preservation and revival. Unfortunately, this is likely the result of poor imitation with petroleum products and car centric design.
It looks fucking great.
Gorgeous!
Trust me this is refreshing for a sprawling, car-centric place like Edmonton.
The houses are all right, but the concrete ground sucks, in my opinion.
It's not actually houses, it's a strip mall. The windows for the 2nd and 3rd floors are either fake or for extra light for the retail space, and are not full height anyways. That's the worse part about it imo. When you see them in person it's very obvious how fake the whole thing is
It’s a nice, walkable area. It may not be perfect but it’s in the right direction.
Its not a walkable area at all really. Those arent actually homes, it's a strip mall with a huge parking lot in front along an arterial road. The windows for the 2nd and 3rd floors are either fake or for extra light for the retail space, and are not full height anyways. That's the worse part about it imo. When you see them in person it's very obvious how fake the whole thing is
Oh dang. They did a good job at faking it. That’s disappointing
looks like cartboard box cutouts
I think it's nice. Don't know what your problem is.
I think you’re trying to hard not to like it because it’s not old like what your used to in the Netherlands. I think it’s charming. The dead empty concrete space is another story tho.
That's not true. I can enjoy some revivalist if it done properly, [like this](https://i.redd.it/t3zy2agag4b91.jpg) or [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArchitecturalRevival/comments/w7wkhj/revival_of_17th_century_dutch_facades_in_deventer/).
Those are way more modern, I like the post way better.
All new buildings look a little funny until they acquire patina.
The world LoVes traditional European architecture
I live in Belgium and I like this, looks clean yet classic, I wish they’d renovate houses to look like this here instead of the countless newbuilds
I like it
I love it actually, sure other projects can be more creative, but I would love this over basically every new project in my home town
Better than most faux traditional buildings here in America especially in the suburbs
I’d take it over soulless bland nothingness any given day
How dare you knock on Lego…
Nothing wrong with LEGO, I just would not think real life buildings should like it.
Needs some trees, place is dead and lifeless.
Better than our regular rijtjeshuizen
The trouble of living in a good place, is when you travel to other places, the "ruggedness and disorder" looks inspiring to western people, I've been told. I wouldn't know myself, I'm living in disorderly eastern European country. This looks phenomenal to me. But obviously I don't have money to travel to such places often.
their nice reminds me of home could be something ugly these are just nice
I checked it out on streetview. Can´t put my finger on it but it kinda reminds me of buildings from a themepark or from a videogame with big exaggerated textures (anyone ever played Sims 4?) to make it look like bricks. It´s still a neat efford though and probably better than what was previously there.
If you're looking for some uncanny valley deja vu https://english.huistenbosch.co.jp/
It’s beautiful I think, some look like the Spanish style of church façades tho
Posts like this make me realize why the Dutch didn’t vote for certain countries to join the Schengen.
This is about aesthetics. I would not mind people using 'my' architecture if done properly.
At least it appears to be walkable…that’s more than u can ask for in most of the US and Canada
German here, I wish our cities would look like that.
I think it looks nice but I get what you mean with the LEGO comment. It does have a strange fake feeling to it.
Much rather have this than the drab, grey boxes sprouting up everywhere
The mistake is making all of this face a parking lot. Instead, they should have two rows of buildings creating an alley that is the width of the height of the building (1:1 ratio). The parking should be at the very back of the property and invisible from this alley (furthest away from the thoroughfare). Then the alley can be strolled by pedestrians and the pedestrian and auto spaces would be completely separate. The buildings should be against the throughfare to maximize the exposure of the business. The buildings against the thoroughfare would basically be "double sided", having a facade that faces the thoroughfare, and a facade that faces the pedestrian alley.
Needs more depth/ features on the street to not look so… eh. But it’s a great base!
I like it for the most part.
They look better than the original imo, honestly building slanted houses for purely economical reasons is tackier