stupidity in design, part 2: architecture

More specifically, I'll be looking at the weird desire to design buildings that look like giant penises.

We're all familiar with it - if you look at a skyscraper by itself, one's mind can't help but draw comparisons to something phallic. Usually, though, the skyscrapers found in American cities are so crowded together that it's a bit harder to tell. This results in two things:

1) There is absolutely no view from the sidewalk.

2) The view that America consists of ego-driven "my building is larger and has more girth than yours" competitiveness.

When it comes to foreign countries, we see less of the phallic buildings, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Because there are fewer tall, manhood-confirming buildings, the resulting ones stick out. Take, for example, the Taipei 101:

It's kind of hard not to notice a big green thing fucking the skyline, isn't it? Especially when everything else goes up maybe 5 stories. And the stupidest part is that one of the reasons why the Taipei 101 was built was because at the time, it would be the tallest building in the world. Penis envy much?

Of course, shortly afterwards another country goes ahead and builds a slightly taller building. Uh oh, now Taipei may feel inadequate. Maybe it'll shrink down to 40 floors now.

In Berlin, I noticed a few examples as well. Nothing as terribly blatant as the green giant's rigid dildo above, but still pretty bad:


Besides fuglying up the city by positioning itself near a pretty church and town hall, the TV tower gives one a very...penetrating view of the city from the top.

Now this cathedral at least looks nice. But geez, look at that dome. Remind you of something? "Holy" isn't the only word I'd use to describe this building.

I'm reminded of that episode of How I Met Your Mother where Ted's boss designs a building that looks exactly like a penis, down to the pubic hair-esque bushes. Judging from the design of a lot of the buildings around the world, I'd say it won't be too long before it becomes a reality.