The Odd and The Forgotten

It is the tenth or eleventh month since the COVID lockdown. I lost track of time and ways of life.  I took a walk on a Sunday afternoon in January 2021 and discovered quite a few odd buildings and housing developments along the way. Some are just a few blocks away from where I live. It has been there for a long time. I never gave much thought to them. When were they built and who was the architect? How on earth were they so ugly?  Ugly or beautiful (or just pleasant), who is there to comment? They are built structures but were never discussed or shown in the architectural news. We usually only publish noteworthy buildings but ignore mostly normal or unimpressive ones. They are just out there. In fact, quite a lot of new developments will fall into this category.  Those buildings also have an architect who designed the structure. Whether the proportions of the massing or fenestration, the material or color of the façade, or the shape of the buildings are physical properties of the architecture. Or do we rather exclude them from the term “Architecture”?  Shall architecture only be reserved for those noteworthy buildings?  I decided to record these odd buildings, along with abandoned spaces in the urban environment.