This reminds me of a scene in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy in which the protagonist finds himself in a room that is very threatening, though not in obvious ways. The horror of it is in things being just off of straight or symmetrical, or of pieces of art containing very obscure ugliness.
This can also be observed in the fact that most consumer things are either made or designed by people who will never use them, resulting in inefficient, ugly, cheap and poorly-functioning items. Everyday items also used to be beautiful. Now they are purely functional, if that.
The CS Lewis scene is a great example of the “uncanny valley” effect for rooms, something people seem more and more aware is happening to our spaces.
The disposability of much of our environments certainly plays into this effect. Things are meant for an approximation of people, rather than concrete persons, and it shows.
This has been a great concern of King Charles III. He has written a wonderful book about this very issue and has even designed a community to put his ideas and theories into practice.
As someone who used to work in an office space that wasn’t exactly designed for the way we spent 8 hours a day in it I definitely have become a proponent of making sure a space can be “lived in” and the concept of feminist architecture and implementing it as much as possible in our surroundings.
And, this isn’t directly relevant, but, when you think about it things like labyrinths and the fear of them somewhat evolved to the backrooms is really interesting. There’s definitely more to say about the horror of backrooms likely being more related to Millennials and Gen Z (my gen) having seen the death of a lot of malls and small business, and the rise/prevalence of big box stores. Something about the artificial lights and the endlessness of it all definitely feels not great.
To your point about the death of malls and box stores, there’s a bit of a paradoxical relationship. On the one hand, it is evidence of a winding down of a certain kind of culture, which can be horrifying, yet there have been trends like vaporwave that use these emptying third spaces as a focal point for nostalgia, though more of a Hiraeth sort than one that fondly reminisces.
This reminds me of a scene in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy in which the protagonist finds himself in a room that is very threatening, though not in obvious ways. The horror of it is in things being just off of straight or symmetrical, or of pieces of art containing very obscure ugliness.
This can also be observed in the fact that most consumer things are either made or designed by people who will never use them, resulting in inefficient, ugly, cheap and poorly-functioning items. Everyday items also used to be beautiful. Now they are purely functional, if that.
The CS Lewis scene is a great example of the “uncanny valley” effect for rooms, something people seem more and more aware is happening to our spaces.
The disposability of much of our environments certainly plays into this effect. Things are meant for an approximation of people, rather than concrete persons, and it shows.
This has been a great concern of King Charles III. He has written a wonderful book about this very issue and has even designed a community to put his ideas and theories into practice.
It’s nice to know someone with some influence is taking this issue seriously.
As someone who used to work in an office space that wasn’t exactly designed for the way we spent 8 hours a day in it I definitely have become a proponent of making sure a space can be “lived in” and the concept of feminist architecture and implementing it as much as possible in our surroundings.
And, this isn’t directly relevant, but, when you think about it things like labyrinths and the fear of them somewhat evolved to the backrooms is really interesting. There’s definitely more to say about the horror of backrooms likely being more related to Millennials and Gen Z (my gen) having seen the death of a lot of malls and small business, and the rise/prevalence of big box stores. Something about the artificial lights and the endlessness of it all definitely feels not great.
To your point about the death of malls and box stores, there’s a bit of a paradoxical relationship. On the one hand, it is evidence of a winding down of a certain kind of culture, which can be horrifying, yet there have been trends like vaporwave that use these emptying third spaces as a focal point for nostalgia, though more of a Hiraeth sort than one that fondly reminisces.
Please try to read it
https://substack.com/@1234881826/note/c-274462512?r=8kg6wq
It can feel like most buildings have been built to be as spiritually destructive as possible.