Bungacast /517/ Wonders of the Modern World ft. Pier Paolo Tamburelli
Oct 28, 2025
In this engaging discussion, architect and professor Pier Paolo Tamburelli explores his project cataloging modern wonders—overwhelmingly large, ancient-pretending structures that are often deemed kitsch. He questions how architecture has lost its ritual essence and discusses the allure of these sites as contemporary places of wonder amid global conflict. Tamburelli also shares personal anecdotes from visits to iconic locations, highlighting the coexistence of beauty and failure, and critiques how these structures reflect political histories and cultural narratives.
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Modern Wonders Resist Classification
- Modern 'wonders' are recent, oversized, and hard to classify yet tap into deep ritual impulses.
- They reveal architecture outside canonical modernist logic and force us to reconsider what counts as modern.
Field Sites From Batu Caves To Yamoussoukro
- Pier Paolo lists nine field sites including Batu Caves, Mount Rushmore, Yamoussoukro and the Sambadrome.
- He describes them as leftovers that scholars usually ignore but that reveal surprising histories.
Primitive Hut Myth Shapes Modernism
- Loger's primitive hut myth simplified architecture into an individual, weather-driven origin story.
- That myth underpins modernism's preference for reductive, ahistorical design rules.
