> “…pay millions of dollars to live in what were originally brick warehouses, factories and power stations.”
Not because they are ‘beautiful’ in and of themselves. Residential living in a space designed for industry is an aesthetic of scale and human triumph over the machine.
Residential living in an open space located in a busy, high density, high value, urban setting is a statement of wealth—I have so much money I can have this much space with nothing in it. And you live in a cramped three floor brownstone walk-up? Ha! (Which would be a traditional and normative sign of wealth, short of the last detached single family house in Manhattan.)
Not because they are ‘beautiful’ in and of themselves. Residential living in a space designed for industry is an aesthetic of scale and human triumph over the machine.
Residential living in an open space located in a busy, high density, high value, urban setting is a statement of wealth—I have so much money I can have this much space with nothing in it. And you live in a cramped three floor brownstone walk-up? Ha! (Which would be a traditional and normative sign of wealth, short of the last detached single family house in Manhattan.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schinasi_Mansion)