Marcus,
I think it's fair game to value a particular style more highly than another, why bring objectivity into it??
If you believe "less IS more" then it's fairly easy to follow what what comes next. But it's important not to forget about the "material honesty" and the celebration of structural elements too, otherwise all there would be to life is tig welded frames and glass box buildings. (not that there is anything wrong with them)
Bronze welded joints can be neat on their own, and don't lack any style in my opinion. I've had many a debate with my framebuilding buddy about the size of the radii. Go figure.
Grant McLean Toronto.Ca
Marcus Helman wrote: The thing that always cracks me up about Mies is that those I-beams in the facade in the 4th picture down are purely ornamental. He did this for years on many similar buildings. He gets a lot of press for eliminating architectural adornment, but he just changed the language. The proportions and the spaces are nice, though. Surely we are not going to get into a debate about whether curly lugs look better than simpler ones. While there may be a shred of objectivity in the Campagnolo-Simplex debate, there cannot be any in a discussion of what looks better. If ever a thing was a matter of personal esthetics, this is it. Personally I think both styles are appealing in their own way.
e-RICHIE wrote: define "worse". that also is a question of esthetics. will employing this technique lead to a failure? i doubt it. is a builder responsible for creating art? prolly. is a bronze welded joint so lacking in style that it needs an added decoration to get a crowd formed around it? i think the builders from "that" era must have thought so.