Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/28/architecture-is-politics.html
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Thank you to the EFF! Her blog is awesome, and it is such a clear case of transformational use and also satire. Give em hell.
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I one day hope to start a website with pictures that are not mine and then sue people for using them. Classy job Zillow, how do you profit from this in the first place?
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McMansion Hell is hilarious. I call everything on the wall “an art” now.
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You make a good point about the photos not belonging to Zillow, which leads me to doubt that the company sent this baseless C&D of its own accord. What I suspect happened is that the real estate agents who sell these ridculous monstrosities got tired of the images they posted on Zillow being used to mock their product and insisted that the site “do something.” This bullying letter was what they came up with.
As usual with these situations, all they’ve done is create a Streisand Effect that draws more attention to Wagner’s site at no cost to her. That attention is timely, too, given that these silly and excessive houses speculative assets are making a comeback after the debacle of the early oughts.
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Read this story last night, and realized it had been a while since I’d donated to the EFF.
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How did I not know of this site until now? Thanks, Zillow for once again proving the validity of the Streisand Effect!
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There are reasons, other than goofus design to think these houses are grotesque. Assuming that we will actually have to wait for some disaster of such proportion, that can only attributable to manmade climate change and the accusations will certainly come back around to pointing at the irresponsibility of America’s overages in contributing to the problem. The data that points to that fact, is based on totals and averages of consumption levels, but breaking that data down, who are the biggest resources and energy hogs, will be inevitable. I hope one day these houses are not just joked about but despised and ridiculed for being built for those that would fiddle while the world approached and flirted with an environmental tipping point. That and tacky design and construction details should one day guarantee a similarly sized, huge bubble burst, the stigma associated with owning or occupying, becoming a preeminent curse. There are already communities preparing contingency for converting them to multi family dwellings. You think they look awful now, just wait for those renovations to start happening ! My advise, run away, keep your distance. If I still lived in Northern Virginia where these have become the pervasive blight upon the land and communities, I’d happily volunteer days of photography devoted to making Zillow wish they’d just kept their mouths shut. I’m a Buckminster Fuller “Bucky” devotee and see no wisdom in the propagation of such idiocies.
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