How Did The World Get So Ugly?

A fellow is making a show about buildings. A fellow called David Perell, with presenter Sheehan Quirke. Their concept is simple: do for the man-made world what David Attenborough's Planet Earth did for the natural world.

I like the idea.

And it makes a simple argument about 

the carelessness behind so much of what’s built these days. We boast about the triumphs of technology and how advanced we are as a civilisation, but why has our built environment regressed so much? 

    Shouldn’t we use our wealth to make our streets more charming and delightful? 

    There’s lots of talk about how we’ve polluted the natural world, but what about how we’ve polluted the man-made world? We’ve filled our streets with ugly railings, benches, lampposts, and clutter. We assume these things have to be boring, but they don’t. Good design can make everything, even bins and bus stops, charming. New things can be prettier than old things. 

    The first step is believing it’s possible. 

    Something has changed. We’ve taken a dramatic turn, and the majority of people prefer what we used to build to what we build today. Just look at where people take photos. In New York it’s the steps of brownstones in the West Village; in San Francisco it’s the old Victorian homes; in London there’s tourists galore in front of those iconic red phone booths which remain on the streets, even though they don’t work anymore, because they’re so nicely designed that people like having them there. 

    All this is what inspired me to make a TV show. ... 

    It’s our mission to help people see the world more clearly, and in turn, make the world a more charming and delightful place to live in.

Every object contains a worldview. And if you want to understand a society, don’t listen to what it says about itself. Look at what it creates. ... 

Every technology becomes obsolete and outdated. But a good aesthetic, even if fashions change, can never become obsolete. It is definitionally timeless.

The TV show is called The Modern World. 

What will the show be like? 

    Six episodes, going chronologically through history and arriving at the present, each focussing on the architecture and design of a specific period: 

        1. Middle Ages 

        2. Renaissance 

        3. Enlightenment 

        4. The Nineteenth Century 

        5. Art Nouveau & Art Deco 

        6. Present Day 

    But, in each case, the point isn’t just to learn about that era; the point is to learn about our modern world through those eras and what they’ve left behind. If you watch the pilot episode (included below) you’ll see what I mean. 

    So the show’s not really “about” the past; it’s about the twenty-first century. That’s why it’s called The Modern World.

Here's their pilot episode, which they've sent out to funders.

Key quote for Wellingtonians: "If you want to know what any society really believes in, just look at how they design their sewers."