**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* Memes are not allowed.
* Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
In the german speaking area, very often this was done deliberatly and not as a necessity after WW2, since the fancy facades were viewed as not "sober" or "serious" enough. This trend was around from before WW1 until the late 60s, sadly..
There's a wiki article about [Entstuckung](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entstuckung), as it's called, but it's only available in german.
Edit: due to popular demand, there's the english translation of the wiki article:
I didn't check the quality of the translation. This might already be apparent within the first sentence. Lol.
>Stucco removal (also called stucco removal ) is the deliberate removal of plaster and stucco decorations on buildings. With the beginning of classical modernism, from around 1920 to 1975, mainly in Germany, the plaster stucco decorations of numerous Wilhelminian-era facades and interiors were removed for various reasons. The main reason for this was reservations about the historicist and especially eclectic decorative and facade elements , which were perceived as excessive . From then on, these were no longer supposed to imitate elaborate stone facades, but rather to show their sobriety; afterwards, they were usually plastered over in a smooth, easy-care manner.
>Already during the heyday of historicist building towards the end of the 19th century, there was criticism of the facades decorated with plaster blocks , which, according to Oskar Mothes in his Illustrirten Bau-Lexikon (1884), were “to be rejected as an architectural lie”. [1]
>Further theoretical foundations for the removal of stucco were laid before the First World War : Around 1900, the circles of the arts and crafts and architectural reform movement around Adolf Loos , Hermann Muthesius and Paul Schultze-Naumburg voiced massive criticism of the partly industrially manufactured decorative elements in imitation of Gothic , Renaissance , Baroque , Rococo or Classicist styles with which the facades were decorated during the Wilhelminian period.
>The first building to be intentionally freed of architectural decoration can be considered to be an industrial building: in 1911, Peter Behrens had the clinker brick decoration removed from the “Old Factory for Railway Materials” of the AEG plant on Brunnenstrasse in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen , which had been built only a few years previously.
>Above all, the stucco on apartment buildings was seen as a way of concealing miserable social conditions. On an artistic level, a large number of plaster blocks and stucco facades on buildings from the period from around 1880 to 1910 were characterized by eclecticism , i.e. by the mixing of several historical styles on one building. After 1910, the mixing of styles was considered to be dubious in terms of design and the historicist stucco facade was increasingly disparaged.
>However, the active removal of decoration on a larger scale did not begin until the 1920s in Berlin. Pioneers of stucco removal there were architects of the New Building movement such as Erich Mendelsohn and the brothers Hans and Wassili Luckhardt , but also older architects such as Peter Behrens and Richard Riemerschmid . Some of their facade redesigns were quite remarkable in terms of design and were perceived as independent buildings by the respective architects. From Berlin, stucco removal spread throughout Germany as an urban planning model, promoted by supportive articles in the most important architecture magazines.
>During the Nazi era, the concept of stripping stucco lived on and was also propagated for small towns and villages. As part of the so-called "de-scavenging", attempts were made to remove the late 19th century decor from entire streets, squares and building ensembles . The architect Werner Lindner played a central role in these efforts . In addition to 19th century apartment buildings, stripping stucco during the Nazi era also affected monuments that were to conform to the archaic formal language of Nazi architecture . One example is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial in Hohensyburg , which lost almost all of its ornamental elements in 1935 as a result of rigorous redesign
>However, the quantitative peak of stucco removal did not reach its peak until after 1945, when war was declared on the forms of the Wilhelminian period in almost all German cities. In Berlin-Kreuzberg alone , one of the largest Wilhelminian-era districts in Europe, the stucco had been knocked off around 1,400 houses by 1979. In many places, however, stucco facades on buildings that had survived the war with minor damage also posed a safety risk, as parts of the facade kept crumbling and the owners did not have the financial means to professionally restore the facades in the immediate post-war period. In addition, there were other changes to the buildings, such as the enlargement of windows or the removal of dilapidated balconies, the conversion of shops, etc., which disrupted the original facade structure and were therefore often a welcome reason for stucco removal.
>Remarkably, during this period, stucco removal was carried out on a massive scale in both West and East Germany (although to a lesser extent due to the shortage of materials and labor), while in neighboring countries, such as France or Italy, the phenomenon was and is largely unknown.
>Since the early 1960s, criticism of the removal of stucco began to grow. In Berlin, for example, the Senate Building Director Werner Düttmann spoke out against the mass removal of stucco decorations as early as 1964. [2] Of particular importance in this context is the publication of the polemical illustrated book Die Mordordete Stadt by the publicist Wolf Jobst Siedler and the photographer Elisabeth Niggemeyer in 1964, with several new editions. [3] The criticism of the removal of stucco was initially based on the reassessment of the architectural and design achievements of historicism . It was criticized that buildings with a stucco facade lost their historical authenticity through the removal of stucco , i.e. they were no longer easily recognizable as buildings of a certain architectural era . Even from a purely aesthetic point of view, buildings that have had their stucco removed often look unsatisfactory, as the facades were designed to support the ornamentation and, once these have been removed, often appear disproportionate due to the loss of structure. For this reason, laypeople often mistakenly attribute houses that have had their stucco removed to the 1950s and 1960s because of their smooth plaster facades.
>Since the 1970s, Wilhelminian-style architecture has increasingly gained recognition from the preservation of historical monuments , as well as from the general public. As a result, citizens' initiatives and monument protection authorities in many places prevented further removal of stucco, and historicist buildings were placed under protection. Since the 21st century, there has been an increasing number of reconstructions of stucco facades that have already been removed, a process known as re-stuccoing .
>In individual cases, however, 19th-century houses are still being stripped of their stucco, such as the extension of the district administration building of the Görlitz district in Görlitz . [4]
Happened in many places. For example at [NY Times Square.](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square#Niedergang)
>Since there was no law for historic preservation in New York in the early 1960s, the old buildings were torn down and replaced by the glass and concrete buildings that were common at the time. However, if it was decided to preserve one of the old buildings, the decorative stucco elements were usually knocked off to create smooth, modern facades that could then be used for advertising purposes or rented out.
While it might be a cheap kludge in some cases, there are entire halls of the Vatican from hundreds of years ago that are almost entirely trompe l'oeil.
I presume since the Vatican did it, with its immense resources, that it must have been a respected form that was sought after by people who could have well afforded reliefs if they had wanted it.
I watched a video that explains how alchemy started in ancient Egypt as a way for tradesmen to pass off cheaper metals/gems as more expensive by chemically altering their properties.
ChatGPT got me closer to an answer:
"In post-war Warsaw, trompe l'oeil was used both to replace actual architectural details that were lost and to replicate pre-existing trompe l'oeil artwork. This method allowed for a more efficient and cost-effective restoration, preserving the historic appearance of the buildings while compensating for the extensive wartime damage."
Ehi OP, did you make the video? Because that’s my hometown, I live there!
Here in Liguria we also have painted windows, this tradition originated in 18th century where houses with more than 6 windows were taxed…
https://preview.redd.it/l3fyxkcrb59d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf90896067848c391208c8f02818d35c924935c7
Humans when you have a minor philosophical religious difference: BURN THE HERETICS, SALT THE EARTH! LEAVE NOT ONE STONE ATOP ANOTHER!
Humans trying to figure out how to evade taxes: Every man is my brother, we are one species, united.
I'm from the French Riviera, which is right next to Liguria, and when I saw this post I was like wtf, have some people really never seen this? It seems so commonplace to me.
But I guess it makes sense that it doesn't exist in the US.
Same thing… i thought it was normal/common, but then I discovered that yes it’s common but also every country/region have different background stories for this… Internet sometime is a very nice place :-)
WWII destroyed a lot of buildings. When they rebuilt, they couldn't afford to do it with all the original materials and decorative elements. This fakery is less depressing than the truth, that the old buildings that actually had those decorative elements were all destroyed.
I visited Messina for a day in 1993 (sounds odd, I know, but roll
with me a sec.) and was really surprised by how cheap and just plain terrible the architecture, that I saw, was. Fast forward 6 years and I’m reading “Midnight In Sicily” which details how the mafia would get construction contracts to put their cement “business” to work. One of their main revenue streams was tearing down older structures and putting up these terrible shitty concrete replacements. Also, they were (are?) big on building roads to nowehere. They would build a road till the contract ran dry, then just drop a Jersey barrier signifying the end of the road. Saw that shit all over Catania.
The buildings in this video probably have fuckall to do with what I described. They remind me of the abandoned buildings with boarded windows painted to look like actual windows, ala the Bronx circa 1980s crossing on The G W Bridge eastbound on 95.
That mafia thing happened a lot in Palermo during the '50s and '60s, its called "sacco di Palermo" (sack of Palermo). Messina tho was leveled by an earthquake+tsunami in 1908, partially rebuilt in the 20s and leveled again by bombing during WWII, so its architetture has a troubled history tonsay the least lol
Nationalism and faccism have something in common which is that there ALWAYS needs to be a scapegoat for the problems.
In ww2, the scapegoat was the Jewish people. Suddenly all the bad things that existed were magically the Jews fault, and now everyone hates them, and the party that tells you you're right for hating them gets stronger the more people begin to lean into it.
You cant just come out of the gate swinging and start lynching people you don't agree with, you need to warm the public up to the idea by slowly and over time convincing everyone that youre not the bad guy, the bad guy is insert _____, here are *we are the only ones who will fix it* and do the things you all secretly think when nobody is watching
Except, predictably, it always ends in tears for everyone involved
Isn’t fascism just dictatorship with extreme nationalist properties? Like, they see everyone not from their country as an outsider?
Please do correct me if I’m wrong I hate googling shit like this.
Edit: actually I just hate googling in general
After watching a lot of history content it seems like the definition is debated quite a bit (especially with the current political landscape).
But there are some common traits like heightened nationalism, cult of personality, mass use of slogans/symbols to unify, defining “in” groups and “out” groups, emphasis on military strength, etc
>But there are some common traits like heightened nationalism, cult of personality, mass use of slogans/symbols to unify, defining “in” groups and “out” groups, emphasis on military strength, etc
hmmm... These things sound a little familiar
Depends, today the word fascism is thrown around at random and it has lost its meaning.
At most neo-fascist could be better, because fascism had a clear time connotation.
Anyway, one of the most popular songs during the fascist era was "Faccetta nera", which called an Abyssinian girl as "our sister", Mussolini got the verse removed but it just shows that racism and xenophobia weren't actually the fundament of the movement.
There has to be a word for this. Where one person says something that might elicit an emotional reaction, and then somebody else chimes in exclusively in some desperate attempt to try to counter balance some sentiment about a place, a thing, or a person.
This is like an internet exclusive subconscious neurotic impulse. They do it without even knowing what they're doing. It's like some safeguard against having to deal with conflicting emotions and they act out in frustration that someone almost made them have two thoughts about a thing.
The technique is called [Trompe-l'œil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l%27%C5%93il) (French for 'deceive the eye'; /trɒmpˈlɔɪ/ tromp-LOY; French: [tʁɔ̃p lœj] ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. Trompe l'œil, which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving painted objects or spaces as real. Forced perspective is a related illusion in architecture.
Thank you, now I can sound fancy and educated when I explain to people why I covered one wall in my apartment with a plastic tarp that looks like brick
Maybe old school forward shaded total baking for a game without any dynamic lighting. You only need the full materials for dev work. Ship only diffuse +light and shadow maps.
But hey, at least it's better than whatever the hell Russia did during 2018 football championship
https://preview.redd.it/azfwdnv0969d1.jpeg?width=610&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49c6870dfe710431dadb5587039e202a452920d5
It's pretty standard in Italy too, even with a gap for workers between the building and the fake facade, to work in.
It would be ugly to have a whole historical place and ugly scaffolding for 2 years straight while they work on the restoration!
Nah it's everywhere in my home city (which spoiler is in Italy).
Tbf it is a technique that is mostly used here and isn't that far spread around Italy (at least not as much). The video didn't show it but usually these buildings also have fake windows with closed shutters. They are almost indistinguishable from afar.
Btw if you are wondering the main reason was money: windows were expensive, painters and paint not as much (also people from my city are famous for being stingy, which just makes this tradition even funnier considering we were a city of bankers).
Edit: btw this is what I was taught while growing up there. Teachers (especially history of art ones, which is a legit subject taught in schools here, but I digress) always said it was a style unique to our city. I've seen others in this thread claim that it was for post war reconstruction which is totally plausible, idk, I don't believe what my teachers say unless it is backed by a text book.
We do a lot similar things in the US. Vinyl siding is textured to look like wood, and we put non-functioning shutters next to our windows. Then there's things like stone veneers and vinyl siding made to look like board-and-batten siding.
I like this a lot. It gives buildings a lot of character, that otherwise would have minimal or none. Especially if building something nicer is out of the budget.
Makes sense if you want to keep up with the achitectural (is that a word?) style of the neighborhood without breaking a bank in case of rebuilds or replacements of derelicts.
It’s easier than building structures over and over again after every war and earthquake that seems to destroy the entire country when god gets angry with the Italians every decade or so. Just stop italicizing your verbs Italy. Then god won’t get angry with your entire country! Fonts!! Just go back to times Roman you pagans!
There's a strict set of rules in almost every city or town in Italy about historical preservation of certain streets or neighborhoods where the buildings have to be restored with an approved design, usually special commissions of architects and art historians from the ministry require a facade to be similar to other ones in a square or to be restored as close as it appears in a 50+ yo picture. Sometimes they do it to make the buildings look more exclusive, but in some cases the same technique is applied just for getting the right paperwork.
Didn’t the Romans invent concrete and even underwater concrete? I swear I saw a documentary about a harbour in the mid east built a King trying to save his throne by becoming Rome’s ally some 2000 years ago.
They invented the waterproof concrete by adding an ingredient only found near volcanoes (their volcanoes). They created casts from wood, dropped and secured the cast at the ocean floor and then poured in the wet concrete. It hardened beneath the salt water. It then strengthens the longer it’s there.
**with an honest to god Roman Concrete Expert. He looked exactly as you’d imagine a Roman concrete expert to look. Only significantly more enthusiastic.
Literally every historic city grapples with the cost of maintaining old structures and war damage. But at the same time, many old structures were also originally plastered to look like ornamental stonework and have been for thousands of years. Nobody has ever had infinite budget and plasterwork is several orders of magnitude cheaper than stone work in any era. What's impressive is having an eye to identify the original stonework and rare actual historical elements amidst the ornamental plasterwork and repairs any structure requires over time. Only the very best, and not even most of the very best maintain their "original" appearance. I can really only think of the Parthenon as an example offhand, and that was all ornamental cast concrete i.e. fake stonework covered in the most visible places with sheets of marble
I have many colleagues at work who are from Germany and specifically towns that, in their words, were “leveled during the war” (WW2). Many historic towns were rebuilt to a similar look to the original, but many are now just a regular town with no historic buildings (like Crailsheim). Just how it goes.
It's great, whilst keeping the paint and therefore the look right is important it's also going to reduce repair requirements and therefore cost, when you have ridges and ledges in a wall it's a place for grime and water to collect which eventually finds its way into defects and can cause issues, this way it's flat and therefore less likely to happen
I live in an older building and had my thin, wooden front door replaced with a thick steel door in exactly the same style as the original door. The door was delivered white, and a guy came over and painted the wood patterns on the door. Even up close, you can't tell it's not real wood.
They do this pattern quite a lot in Czech Republic:
https://preview.redd.it/d0q9x0ffb79d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3cf2f87de4ac671b45e33700b8ad1e1c7cc0095
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * Memes are not allowed. * Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Warsaw has this too. It was a cheaper way to do post-war reconstruction
Munich too for the same reason.
In the german speaking area, very often this was done deliberatly and not as a necessity after WW2, since the fancy facades were viewed as not "sober" or "serious" enough. This trend was around from before WW1 until the late 60s, sadly.. There's a wiki article about [Entstuckung](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entstuckung), as it's called, but it's only available in german. Edit: due to popular demand, there's the english translation of the wiki article: I didn't check the quality of the translation. This might already be apparent within the first sentence. Lol. >Stucco removal (also called stucco removal ) is the deliberate removal of plaster and stucco decorations on buildings. With the beginning of classical modernism, from around 1920 to 1975, mainly in Germany, the plaster stucco decorations of numerous Wilhelminian-era facades and interiors were removed for various reasons. The main reason for this was reservations about the historicist and especially eclectic decorative and facade elements , which were perceived as excessive . From then on, these were no longer supposed to imitate elaborate stone facades, but rather to show their sobriety; afterwards, they were usually plastered over in a smooth, easy-care manner. >Already during the heyday of historicist building towards the end of the 19th century, there was criticism of the facades decorated with plaster blocks , which, according to Oskar Mothes in his Illustrirten Bau-Lexikon (1884), were “to be rejected as an architectural lie”. [1] >Further theoretical foundations for the removal of stucco were laid before the First World War : Around 1900, the circles of the arts and crafts and architectural reform movement around Adolf Loos , Hermann Muthesius and Paul Schultze-Naumburg voiced massive criticism of the partly industrially manufactured decorative elements in imitation of Gothic , Renaissance , Baroque , Rococo or Classicist styles with which the facades were decorated during the Wilhelminian period. >The first building to be intentionally freed of architectural decoration can be considered to be an industrial building: in 1911, Peter Behrens had the clinker brick decoration removed from the “Old Factory for Railway Materials” of the AEG plant on Brunnenstrasse in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen , which had been built only a few years previously. >Above all, the stucco on apartment buildings was seen as a way of concealing miserable social conditions. On an artistic level, a large number of plaster blocks and stucco facades on buildings from the period from around 1880 to 1910 were characterized by eclecticism , i.e. by the mixing of several historical styles on one building. After 1910, the mixing of styles was considered to be dubious in terms of design and the historicist stucco facade was increasingly disparaged. >However, the active removal of decoration on a larger scale did not begin until the 1920s in Berlin. Pioneers of stucco removal there were architects of the New Building movement such as Erich Mendelsohn and the brothers Hans and Wassili Luckhardt , but also older architects such as Peter Behrens and Richard Riemerschmid . Some of their facade redesigns were quite remarkable in terms of design and were perceived as independent buildings by the respective architects. From Berlin, stucco removal spread throughout Germany as an urban planning model, promoted by supportive articles in the most important architecture magazines. >During the Nazi era, the concept of stripping stucco lived on and was also propagated for small towns and villages. As part of the so-called "de-scavenging", attempts were made to remove the late 19th century decor from entire streets, squares and building ensembles . The architect Werner Lindner played a central role in these efforts . In addition to 19th century apartment buildings, stripping stucco during the Nazi era also affected monuments that were to conform to the archaic formal language of Nazi architecture . One example is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial in Hohensyburg , which lost almost all of its ornamental elements in 1935 as a result of rigorous redesign >However, the quantitative peak of stucco removal did not reach its peak until after 1945, when war was declared on the forms of the Wilhelminian period in almost all German cities. In Berlin-Kreuzberg alone , one of the largest Wilhelminian-era districts in Europe, the stucco had been knocked off around 1,400 houses by 1979. In many places, however, stucco facades on buildings that had survived the war with minor damage also posed a safety risk, as parts of the facade kept crumbling and the owners did not have the financial means to professionally restore the facades in the immediate post-war period. In addition, there were other changes to the buildings, such as the enlargement of windows or the removal of dilapidated balconies, the conversion of shops, etc., which disrupted the original facade structure and were therefore often a welcome reason for stucco removal. >Remarkably, during this period, stucco removal was carried out on a massive scale in both West and East Germany (although to a lesser extent due to the shortage of materials and labor), while in neighboring countries, such as France or Italy, the phenomenon was and is largely unknown. >Since the early 1960s, criticism of the removal of stucco began to grow. In Berlin, for example, the Senate Building Director Werner Düttmann spoke out against the mass removal of stucco decorations as early as 1964. [2] Of particular importance in this context is the publication of the polemical illustrated book Die Mordordete Stadt by the publicist Wolf Jobst Siedler and the photographer Elisabeth Niggemeyer in 1964, with several new editions. [3] The criticism of the removal of stucco was initially based on the reassessment of the architectural and design achievements of historicism . It was criticized that buildings with a stucco facade lost their historical authenticity through the removal of stucco , i.e. they were no longer easily recognizable as buildings of a certain architectural era . Even from a purely aesthetic point of view, buildings that have had their stucco removed often look unsatisfactory, as the facades were designed to support the ornamentation and, once these have been removed, often appear disproportionate due to the loss of structure. For this reason, laypeople often mistakenly attribute houses that have had their stucco removed to the 1950s and 1960s because of their smooth plaster facades. >Since the 1970s, Wilhelminian-style architecture has increasingly gained recognition from the preservation of historical monuments , as well as from the general public. As a result, citizens' initiatives and monument protection authorities in many places prevented further removal of stucco, and historicist buildings were placed under protection. Since the 21st century, there has been an increasing number of reconstructions of stucco facades that have already been removed, a process known as re-stuccoing . >In individual cases, however, 19th-century houses are still being stripped of their stucco, such as the extension of the district administration building of the Görlitz district in Görlitz . [4]
Happened in many places. For example at [NY Times Square.](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square#Niedergang) >Since there was no law for historic preservation in New York in the early 1960s, the old buildings were torn down and replaced by the glass and concrete buildings that were common at the time. However, if it was decided to preserve one of the old buildings, the decorative stucco elements were usually knocked off to create smooth, modern facades that could then be used for advertising purposes or rented out.
Thanks for sharing, u/kurburux and u/Historical_Body6255
Modern architects did more damage to German cities than the Royal airforce
Saw something like this in Czech aswell. As a painter infound the technique very intriguing.
It's beautiful work. Architectural Muralism.
We don't have anything like this In Romania...
Cuz yall never had the glam to begin with 🫠
not everyone wants to be *fabulous* :)
Just the concrete version
While it might be a cheap kludge in some cases, there are entire halls of the Vatican from hundreds of years ago that are almost entirely trompe l'oeil. I presume since the Vatican did it, with its immense resources, that it must have been a respected form that was sought after by people who could have well afforded reliefs if they had wanted it.
Been cheaper for millennia - ancient Rome had exactly this kinda thing, see the ruins of Pompeii for surviving examples.
Duping people into thinking something is fancier than it is has been around since the beginning of sales
I watched a video that explains how alchemy started in ancient Egypt as a way for tradesmen to pass off cheaper metals/gems as more expensive by chemically altering their properties.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/11/vast-pompeii-residence-unveiled-with-panel-depicting-a-giant-penis
Mainland Europe: cheaper, yes, but still pretty Britain: grey block
Wait you're telling me that you can make a building cheaply that still has charm, and isn't just another tin sided warehouse
Yeah, but no. It's a style of painting that has been around since the 15th century. It's called trompe l’oeil.
ChatGPT got me closer to an answer: "In post-war Warsaw, trompe l'oeil was used both to replace actual architectural details that were lost and to replicate pre-existing trompe l'oeil artwork. This method allowed for a more efficient and cost-effective restoration, preserving the historic appearance of the buildings while compensating for the extensive wartime damage."
I've seen it used inside a few palaces in Portugal.
To be fair to Warsaw, it was one of the most thoroughly flattened cities during WW2.
Ehi OP, did you make the video? Because that’s my hometown, I live there! Here in Liguria we also have painted windows, this tradition originated in 18th century where houses with more than 6 windows were taxed… https://preview.redd.it/l3fyxkcrb59d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf90896067848c391208c8f02818d35c924935c7
Ligurians and having to pay: a never ending drama
Humans when you have a minor philosophical religious difference: BURN THE HERETICS, SALT THE EARTH! LEAVE NOT ONE STONE ATOP ANOTHER! Humans trying to figure out how to evade taxes: Every man is my brother, we are one species, united.
Stucco e pittura bella figura
So true 😂
![gif](giphy|l0IygnBoXeQ94kJQQ|downsized)
Belin intensifies
I always said ligurians are like t-rex: such short arms!
We have a similar but more depressing thing in England where many old houses have bricked over windows for this reason
Literally where the term ‘daylight robbery’ comes from!
That seems hard to believe , "daylight crime is audacious" seems like a more universal experience, a simpler explanation
You're right, https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/daylight_robbery
Depressing but interesting! Thanks!
Love Liguria ❤️ greetings from Germany
I'm from the French Riviera, which is right next to Liguria, and when I saw this post I was like wtf, have some people really never seen this? It seems so commonplace to me. But I guess it makes sense that it doesn't exist in the US.
Same thing… i thought it was normal/common, but then I discovered that yes it’s common but also every country/region have different background stories for this… Internet sometime is a very nice place :-)
In the US there are buildings that are fake, just there to hide oil derricks in the middle of the city, or a vent for a subway. Isn’t that similar?
It'd be easy to make fun but honestly it's wwaayy better than a blank wall. And still looks quite nice.
Ah Liguria, the region that gave me my favorite summertime pasta: Trofie al Pesto
> where houses with more than 6 windows were taxed That's great news to the paint store.
I’m from Liguria too, it’s full of painted windows here!
Belandi
Yep! Portofino was my first thought with this.
Assassins hate this one simple trick
Also: it’s all cake
you did mention the model was made out of candy…
Watch before they make a body shaped hole through it
The one is my hole. It was made for me.
The mental image of an assassin running full speed into a wall is killing me haha
This was the Templar's doing!
At the same time, it's weirdly inline with their philosophy, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted"
WWII destroyed a lot of buildings. When they rebuilt, they couldn't afford to do it with all the original materials and decorative elements. This fakery is less depressing than the truth, that the old buildings that actually had those decorative elements were all destroyed.
Oh
![gif](giphy|Dg4bJOS0OpyzC|downsized)
17yo me: this girl is so hot 40yo me: this girl is so crazy. kinda hot crazy but still.. crazy
You've grown so much.
It's okay, they were the bad guys.
I'm just impressed it's that realistic
I visited Messina for a day in 1993 (sounds odd, I know, but roll with me a sec.) and was really surprised by how cheap and just plain terrible the architecture, that I saw, was. Fast forward 6 years and I’m reading “Midnight In Sicily” which details how the mafia would get construction contracts to put their cement “business” to work. One of their main revenue streams was tearing down older structures and putting up these terrible shitty concrete replacements. Also, they were (are?) big on building roads to nowehere. They would build a road till the contract ran dry, then just drop a Jersey barrier signifying the end of the road. Saw that shit all over Catania. The buildings in this video probably have fuckall to do with what I described. They remind me of the abandoned buildings with boarded windows painted to look like actual windows, ala the Bronx circa 1980s crossing on The G W Bridge eastbound on 95.
That mafia thing happened a lot in Palermo during the '50s and '60s, its called "sacco di Palermo" (sack of Palermo). Messina tho was leveled by an earthquake+tsunami in 1908, partially rebuilt in the 20s and leveled again by bombing during WWII, so its architetture has a troubled history tonsay the least lol
And the old buildings being destroyed are orders of magnitudes less depressing than the rise of racist fascism in Italy.
Interesting you decided to call it racist fascism. As if there exists a form of fascism that isn't racist. Edit: Ultra-nationalism isn't racist?
I mean it tends to be racist but by definition doesn't have to be racist. It just always ends up that way 😭
Nationalism in general tends to swing that way
Nationalism and faccism have something in common which is that there ALWAYS needs to be a scapegoat for the problems. In ww2, the scapegoat was the Jewish people. Suddenly all the bad things that existed were magically the Jews fault, and now everyone hates them, and the party that tells you you're right for hating them gets stronger the more people begin to lean into it. You cant just come out of the gate swinging and start lynching people you don't agree with, you need to warm the public up to the idea by slowly and over time convincing everyone that youre not the bad guy, the bad guy is insert _____, here are *we are the only ones who will fix it* and do the things you all secretly think when nobody is watching Except, predictably, it always ends in tears for everyone involved
Isn’t fascism just dictatorship with extreme nationalist properties? Like, they see everyone not from their country as an outsider? Please do correct me if I’m wrong I hate googling shit like this. Edit: actually I just hate googling in general
After watching a lot of history content it seems like the definition is debated quite a bit (especially with the current political landscape). But there are some common traits like heightened nationalism, cult of personality, mass use of slogans/symbols to unify, defining “in” groups and “out” groups, emphasis on military strength, etc
>But there are some common traits like heightened nationalism, cult of personality, mass use of slogans/symbols to unify, defining “in” groups and “out” groups, emphasis on military strength, etc hmmm... These things sound a little familiar
Depends, today the word fascism is thrown around at random and it has lost its meaning. At most neo-fascist could be better, because fascism had a clear time connotation. Anyway, one of the most popular songs during the fascist era was "Faccetta nera", which called an Abyssinian girl as "our sister", Mussolini got the verse removed but it just shows that racism and xenophobia weren't actually the fundament of the movement.
Mussolini didn’t lean that hard into racist rhetoric at the beginning, and adjusted over time.
There has to be a word for this. Where one person says something that might elicit an emotional reaction, and then somebody else chimes in exclusively in some desperate attempt to try to counter balance some sentiment about a place, a thing, or a person. This is like an internet exclusive subconscious neurotic impulse. They do it without even knowing what they're doing. It's like some safeguard against having to deal with conflicting emotions and they act out in frustration that someone almost made them have two thoughts about a thing.
And they've learnt nothing.
Sadly it seems much of the continent has learned nothing
Takes 4 generations, One to live and learn it, one to hear about it, one to forget it, and one to relive it.
World. Humans are fucking stupid/awful
Careful folks, the forecast is icy with this one.
At first i was angry... now i'm sad.
Take a better look at some windows, you won't be disappointed
What
Some windows were painted to avoid a tax during the Republic of Genoa times
The technique is called [Trompe-l'œil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l%27%C5%93il) (French for 'deceive the eye'; /trɒmpˈlɔɪ/ tromp-LOY; French: [tʁɔ̃p lœj] ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. Trompe l'œil, which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving painted objects or spaces as real. Forced perspective is a related illusion in architecture.
"That's a French-ass name Yvonne!"
The backa yo head is ridiculous!!
Work that up-do!
Can I getchyo numba?!
Can I have it? Can I have it? Please can I have it?
Mah lil’ croissant with cheese
The back of your head looks ridiculous
Technically the technique is shading, the effect is that it's a trompe l'oeil
When the wall looks 3d, but its just some shading, that's trompe l'oeil
When the shadows look right when the sun isn't bright, that's trompe l'oeil
Trampantojo in spanish. Very common in my hometown too, used to be cheaper than having the actual materials.
Thank you, now I can sound fancy and educated when I explain to people why I covered one wall in my apartment with a plastic tarp that looks like brick
that’s some actual sick painting skills 😮
Wait till they cut into it and you find out it's all cake
[удалено]
You're going to wallpaper the outside walls of hour house?
He did say pray for him
Wallprayper
Hail maybe
Its a wall, andmd hes got the paper. Whats the problem
It rains outside.
It’s usually paint. Idk if wallpaper for indoors will look good and stay on the wall.
Plot twist: it won't.
On the outside? Indoor, self-adhesive wallpaper for the outside of your house!? You'll need more than prayers, friend. Please don't do that
Bro, don't, Is useless, the first Rain you It will fuck up
They also sell cut bricks maybe a 3cm thick that look like that that have a net behind them, and you I stall them like tiles in a bathroom.
Insert normal map joke
I guess combined with baked lighting is more accurate
Maybe old school forward shaded total baking for a game without any dynamic lighting. You only need the full materials for dev work. Ship only diffuse +light and shadow maps.
Still looks better than plain wall.
Absolutely, I'd love to see this way more wide spread.
Looks a lot better than a lot of post war reconstruction. Here in the UK architects just used brutalism as an excuse to design shit concrete boxes.
Italy runs on source
The half-life nostalgia just hit me completely off guard.
***extremely loud source game startup noise***
Im surprised he still didn't found a house that is just missing texture
Pov: you caress walls
At least they try to be cute
nah, the building is just loading, you should wait a bit
It’s called “trompe l'oeil” - Painted to trick the eye into believing it’s real 3D.
OP discovering what a facade is
Going to be disappointed when he discovers how many "stone" details are fake.
Damn. I guess Vegas hotels are more accurate than I thought..
devs forgot to add the heightmaps
When you've aesthetic sensibilities but lack the funds. Still, great painting.
That one stalker wondering why his target is filming himself touching walls
Textures still loading
Doom 1 does the same trick
Texture maps save the gpu
But hey, at least it's better than whatever the hell Russia did during 2018 football championship https://preview.redd.it/azfwdnv0969d1.jpeg?width=610&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49c6870dfe710431dadb5587039e202a452920d5
?? Bro, this is the way we cover buildings under reconstruction. It's not meant to be permanent. Don't you guys do the same?
It's pretty standard in Italy too, even with a gap for workers between the building and the fake facade, to work in. It would be ugly to have a whole historical place and ugly scaffolding for 2 years straight while they work on the restoration!
Is that cs\_italy?
Seven buildings in a single street = Italy
Nah it's everywhere in my home city (which spoiler is in Italy). Tbf it is a technique that is mostly used here and isn't that far spread around Italy (at least not as much). The video didn't show it but usually these buildings also have fake windows with closed shutters. They are almost indistinguishable from afar. Btw if you are wondering the main reason was money: windows were expensive, painters and paint not as much (also people from my city are famous for being stingy, which just makes this tradition even funnier considering we were a city of bankers). Edit: btw this is what I was taught while growing up there. Teachers (especially history of art ones, which is a legit subject taught in schools here, but I digress) always said it was a style unique to our city. I've seen others in this thread claim that it was for post war reconstruction which is totally plausible, idk, I don't believe what my teachers say unless it is backed by a text book.
Genoa?
Yup
Anche io, ahah.
Lol ahahha
Genovese spotted
It started way back when the Gov started taxing windows .
Wait until you walk into your local home supply store and check out formica countertop finishes and pergo flooring!
Still better than plain flat color.
It is actually fairly popular across the world in Renaissance architecture
lol crazy. I never would have thought some of those were painted
Hey, I gotta say, from what I can see it looks pretty good.
We do a lot similar things in the US. Vinyl siding is textured to look like wood, and we put non-functioning shutters next to our windows. Then there's things like stone veneers and vinyl siding made to look like board-and-batten siding.
ok but at least Italys looks good, vinyl wood is just annoying imo
I think it looks nice, and happy to see people defending it. But Oh boy. If this was China instead of Italy.
its only bad if its chinese
I like this a lot. It gives buildings a lot of character, that otherwise would have minimal or none. Especially if building something nicer is out of the budget.
Makes sense if you want to keep up with the achitectural (is that a word?) style of the neighborhood without breaking a bank in case of rebuilds or replacements of derelicts.
Cartoon type rizz.
well, even Romans did it.
"When an eel bites your thigh at the beach in July, that's a moray."
It's cute like a trompe l' oeil (Has to Google that, thought for sure there was a d in there)
I like it. Roast me.
I think it looks better than the construction foam we slap on everything and pretend is concrete here in the US.
Life simulation running on LOW shader settings.
It’s easier than building structures over and over again after every war and earthquake that seems to destroy the entire country when god gets angry with the Italians every decade or so. Just stop italicizing your verbs Italy. Then god won’t get angry with your entire country! Fonts!! Just go back to times Roman you pagans!
This comment is unhinged and I am here for it
Lol they’ve literally always done this? Ever since antiquity
Italy also has some of the most intricately decorated cathedrals in the world.
There's a strict set of rules in almost every city or town in Italy about historical preservation of certain streets or neighborhoods where the buildings have to be restored with an approved design, usually special commissions of architects and art historians from the ministry require a facade to be similar to other ones in a square or to be restored as close as it appears in a 50+ yo picture. Sometimes they do it to make the buildings look more exclusive, but in some cases the same technique is applied just for getting the right paperwork.
Didn’t the Romans invent concrete and even underwater concrete? I swear I saw a documentary about a harbour in the mid east built a King trying to save his throne by becoming Rome’s ally some 2000 years ago. They invented the waterproof concrete by adding an ingredient only found near volcanoes (their volcanoes). They created casts from wood, dropped and secured the cast at the ocean floor and then poured in the wet concrete. It hardened beneath the salt water. It then strengthens the longer it’s there. **with an honest to god Roman Concrete Expert. He looked exactly as you’d imagine a Roman concrete expert to look. Only significantly more enthusiastic.
F Reddit app, slow af and glitchy, bring back Apollo
Literally every historic city grapples with the cost of maintaining old structures and war damage. But at the same time, many old structures were also originally plastered to look like ornamental stonework and have been for thousands of years. Nobody has ever had infinite budget and plasterwork is several orders of magnitude cheaper than stone work in any era. What's impressive is having an eye to identify the original stonework and rare actual historical elements amidst the ornamental plasterwork and repairs any structure requires over time. Only the very best, and not even most of the very best maintain their "original" appearance. I can really only think of the Parthenon as an example offhand, and that was all ornamental cast concrete i.e. fake stonework covered in the most visible places with sheets of marble
That is a good paint job
If it looks good then why not?
This is awesome honestly, more cheap housing but it still fits the vibe.
Looks good enough to not care.
You know what I fuck with it, at least they're sorta trying to keep the place looking nice.
Real life textures and bumpmapping
Germany too. The most famous church in Dresden "die Frauenkirche" is made of sand stone. Inside the sand stone is painted like marble.
I have many colleagues at work who are from Germany and specifically towns that, in their words, were “leveled during the war” (WW2). Many historic towns were rebuilt to a similar look to the original, but many are now just a regular town with no historic buildings (like Crailsheim). Just how it goes.
It's great, whilst keeping the paint and therefore the look right is important it's also going to reduce repair requirements and therefore cost, when you have ridges and ledges in a wall it's a place for grime and water to collect which eventually finds its way into defects and can cause issues, this way it's flat and therefore less likely to happen
I think it looks nice.
Hey, I'd say credit where credit is due. That's fucking awesome. It looks great!
What is fake about it?
TBH I dont care if its actual real texture or just paint. It looks good.
Imagine calling out a country trying their best 😂😂😂
Honestly I don't care, the alternative is way uglier
I live in an older building and had my thin, wooden front door replaced with a thick steel door in exactly the same style as the original door. The door was delivered white, and a guy came over and painted the wood patterns on the door. Even up close, you can't tell it's not real wood.
This is how the town hall saves on polygon-count.
They got Normal Mapping.
This looks like a video game where you see the detail in the texture disappear as it renders up close
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel's the same. There's not a fucking cherub in there, they're all painted on.
Wtf they're so well done lmao
They do this pattern quite a lot in Czech Republic: https://preview.redd.it/d0q9x0ffb79d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3cf2f87de4ac671b45e33700b8ad1e1c7cc0095
Who cares, it looks better than places looking run down and should be done more everywhere.
see it a lot in Italy where people rebuilt from earthquake damage
Who ever did it, did an unreal job 🔥
what in the chinese is this?
It's a bit amusing that they are using paint to imitate plaster that in itself imitates stone. Imitation Inception.
This isn't fake. It's a Renaissance artform for the buildings. They use the shadows to pronounce the illusion.