In a world built for speed, efficiency and quicker turnarounds, what room is there for the eccentric, the whimsical or the autobiographical? Both the Tor House and Watts Towers stand distinctly apart from the prevailing ‘aesthetic’ of their times, and are distinctly ‘UnModern’ structures.'
Their creators were going for something fundamentally different. Both were deeply autobiographical, each square inch holding their own fingerprints and memories, plastered into the very structure of the buildings. Both artists lived impoverished, frugal lives, and the structures reflect this. There is a deep, intimate, incremental engagement with the building that is impossible to replicate. What can we learn from the folksy ephemerality of the Watts Towers, and the sombre granite of the Tor House?
