Declining architecture...?

Marginal Revolution: Further thoughts on declining architecture

Yes, it is true that Europeans and Asians may place a higher premium on design than Americans, and this may be because we live in denser cities and individual buildings have a greater impact, and the mistakes of the 60s and 70s still weigh upon our consciousness. There is a link between density and the automobile, but it is a nuanced relationship and there are issues like house and plot sizes, and architectural/social styles that also have considerable impacts.

On the other hand, we also have many preserved historic areas, and this may function directly or indirectly to raise architectural standards - i.e. 1) how will a building look in its pseudo-preserved surroundings, and more often 2) you need to provide a good enough design to get permission to knock old buildings down, which seems to be one of London's favourite ways of planning.

I do find the whole fetishization of European construction bizarre, to put it mildly. The very best buildings are beautiful works of art, the average ones often poor, if not rubbish. There is a distinct lack of qualified tradesmen [a problem which I dare say is not limited to Europe], and the economics of the industry are profoundly skewed - a friend who is a carpenter doesn't build cabinets, he makes forms for poured concrete, as the pay's markedly higher. The Scottish Parliament has been built partly by Romanian carpenters, as they couldn't get enough of the local variety.

And at the end of the day we have to realise that since the emergence of the post-war modernist movement, there has been bugger all relationship between architecture and most construction.