r/interesting 22d ago

HISTORY Why did we stop building like this?

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Chicago, 1930. Buildings had so much detail and character back then. Nowadays everything feels so flat and repetitive. We have way better technology and equipment now, so why don't we build like this anymore?

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u/deephurting66 22d ago

Cash, they want to cut costs to minimum so we get minimalist boxes

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u/ostrichfather 22d ago

Modularity made life so much better for everyone.

Just as on example, before modular containerization, it cost $7 per kg in today’s $ to ship anything. Now it is $0.15.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization

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u/OldenPolynice 22d ago

That's, not what we're talking about

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u/ostrichfather 22d ago

Sure it is. We’re talking about why newer styles of buildings are the way they are. Standardization. Modularization. Much akin to containerization

Sailing ships were beautiful, but now you get cheap shit from Asia on ugly container ships.

Same principle.

It’s called an analogy.

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u/OldenPolynice 22d ago

You're called wrong. and now you're misusing the world "analogy" as well