I found this photo in a collection of purportedly “gorgeous, architecture [sic] inspired rings.”
As a piece of sculpture, I admit that the ring is pleasant enough. But how would it feel to wear a square ring?
Since the collection seems to justify its edgy discomfort on the word “architecture,” it got me wondering how architecture came to mean "deliberately odd or uncomfortable." I suspect the answer to that question can be found in modern architecture itself, since I frequently hear people justify such bad design by claiming - much like the ring - that it is sculptural. Setting aside that I often disagree with that notion, “sculptural” does not always translate as comfortably scaled or well composed, which are essential qualities of good architecture. While I admire Calder’s La Grande Vitesse, I certainly would not want to live or work in it.
Of course, when discussing his chair designs, Wright is to have said, “I have been black and blue in some spot, somewhere, almost all my life from too intimate contacts with my own furniture.” I imagine I’d remember a ring that gave me calluses. More examples can be found here, if you care.
