Faux (adjective) – made in imitation, artificial. Not genuine, fake or false.
Modern (noun) – a person who advocates or practices a departure from traditional styles or values.
Since Parametric Post-Modernism, never caught on, surprisingly! going to take a stab at a word/phrase with homage to Po-Mo.
Faux-mo.
The google graphs above indicate the word ‘Faux’ has become very popular in the last few decades and ‘Modern’ started to fade around the 1940’s.
It appears we’ll never be ‘modern’ again as a society, since ‘modern’ is now as traditional as a Big Mac is American Pie (und vee all live in Amerika;)
If you haven’t noticed, modern architecture is as common as McDonalds – Billions Served: Dwell magazine, the overuse of the phrase “open concept” on HGTV, on and on…
“A significant architecture must incorporate both internal and external expressions. The external language, which engages inventions of culture at large, is rooted in a figurative, associational, and anthropomorphic attitude.” – Michael Graves, ‘A Case for Figurative Architecture’
Here it is, the monument to Faux-Mo. It has all the figurative, associational, and anthropomorphic attributes of modern architecture.
Located at the corner of West 28th and Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) in New York City a recently re-built McDonalds with a new experience. 
Automated Cashier Machines, the future is here – demand full automation. Touch-screen to put in your order and a homing device locator for the only human part of this entire transaction – a smiling McDonalds employee delivering your tray of fast food, and you can’t even tip them.
There's an App for that?
It's a reveal on the right, just paint on the left.
concrete boards with form work holes? Tadao Ando laminate?
Boredom as a result of too much to do. Too much professional practice architecture. Too much reality. Lots of fiction and lots of history.
7 Comments
staggered base southside of cementious panels have no clothes. new item: layer burger. thanks for blogging.
Bitin' my lines man- Faux(st) modernism.
Come on, you can get old but some things you can't forget.
"Metal buildings are the dream that Modern Architects had at the beginning of this century. It has finally come true, but they themselves don't realize it. That's because it doesn't take an Architect to build a metal building."
David Byrne.
I had to mess with you.
This is a great faux(st) modern example, trying to hard to be something that it is not and sacrificing so much integrity in the process-both in the construction and the service model. These are just additional layers of fake being added on to a fast food service model that struggles to maintain it's margins. Eventually they'll expedite their service all the way back to a coin-op model.
I've been noticing the phrase(s) which I know aren't new, "progressive architecture" / "progressive design" a bit more frequently, recently...
Always wanted to eat at an Automat. For some reason I imagine it has a bit more romance / nostalgia than a vending machine...
In undergrad I tried to a sushi bar/automat project sited in Philly. My adviser quickly squashed it and I had just the one. I need to find those drawings for a quick dose of hurt.
If I find those drawings I'm not sharing them.
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