August 2020 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold the “Shipwreck Tower” in Prague, proposed to be the Czech Republic’s tallest building at 440 feet, about 40 stories. This humdinger was conceived, obviously, before Covid-19 raced around the world. What you get is another colossal art stunt incorporated into an office building, a virtue-signaling gag telling all you dim bulbs out there that climate change will wreck civilization — at least that’s what the designer says. That would be the Black’n’Arch Studio in collaboration with sculptor David Cerny.

Now, here’s the real gag. Covid-19 is busy destroying office work as a general proposition while it decimates the global economy. The office tower as a building type was already going obsolete before the virus came on the scene. It greatly accelerated the schedule. Not ironically (rather self-evidently), all the energy embedded in this sort of commercial construction — starting with mining and smelting the ore and making concrete — is a big contributor to atmospheric CO2. So the joke is on those who are putting up this building.

Architects far and wide will probably be shocked to learn that the age of gargantuan gags is over. It’s actually time for buildings that allow people to feel comfortable and bolster the human spirit. Thanks for the nomination to the correspondent who styles himself as “Delano Ebay.”