
How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world - smacktoward
http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification
======
roymurdock
This reminds me of a fundamental concept of New Trade Theory. This is a theory
that Paul Krugman won a Nobel Prize in Economics for in 2008 (although the
theory first gained attention alongside "globalization" in the early 1990s).

Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution provides a good explanation:

 _Consider the simplest model (based on Krugman 1979). In this model there are
two countries. In each country, consumers have a preference for variety but
there is a tradeoff between variety and cost, consumers want variety but since
there are economies of scale – a firm’s unit costs fall as it produces more –
more variety means higher prices. Preferences for variety push in the
direction of more variety, economies of scale push in the direction of less.
So suppose that without trade country 1 produces varieties A,B,C and country
two produces varieties X,Y,Z. In every other respect the countries are
identical so there are no traditional comparative advantage reasons for trade.

Nevertheless, if trade is possible it is welfare enhancing. With trade the
scale of production can increase which reduces costs and prices. Notice,
however, that something interesting happens. The number of world varieties
will decrease even as the number of varieties available to each consumer
increases. That is, with trade production will concentrate in say A,B,X,Y so
each consumer has increased choice even as world variety declines.

Increasing variety for individuals even as world variety declines is a
fundamental fact of globalization. In the context of culture, Tyler explains
this very well in his book, Creative Destruction; when people in Beijing can
eat at McDonald’s and people in American can eat at great Chinese restaurants
the world looks increasingly similar even as each world resident experiences
an increase in variety._

In essence, variety within local flavors/variants decreases, but the best
brands are exported globally. When applied to furniture/interior decoration
this means that you can find archetypes of the popular styles everywhere but
that variations within those archetypes is very limited - every coffee shop,
loft, restaurant of the same overarching style feels the same.

The solution for those tired of one style - pick another completely different
cultural style!

Read more here:
[http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/10/wha...](http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/10/what-
is-new-tra.html)

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jahewson
Designers and architects have always been an international bunch. Fashions are
global and have been for a very long time. The Romans built things in a
deliberately Greek style. French Gothic architecture was copied across Europe.
Neoclassical architecture saw the Greek style return and used in government
building around the world. The Victorians built the same stuff everywhere.
Hollywood brought Art Deco to the world in the 1920s and 30s. The style which
the author complains about so much is predominately the Mid-century Modern of
the 1950s and 60s.

So no, fashion existed long ago. And it was global long ago.

~~~
return0
The difference is, these architectures grew inside a culture without external
influences, and reached some maturity before being imported and remixed by
others.

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mbesto
I wonder if the author has ever been to the Nordics (Sweden specifically)? I
would argue IKEA (and Swedish design) has largely to do with the sterile
aesthetics of minimalist living and local coffee shops.

~~~
pluma
It was always my impression that the "startup" look had more to do with
limited finances and cheap IKEA furniture (compared to significantly more
expensive designer furniture) than with some kind of desire to look like
everyone else.

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fnbr
I was travelling in Eastern Europe with a friend last summer, and we noticed
the phenomenon independently. We were searching for good espresso by looking
for cafes that had the industrial aesthetic- bare wooden tables, vaguely
scandinavian furniture, Edison bulbs. It worked without fail; every cafe we
stopped in that subscribed to the aesthetic had great coffee.

I suspect the reason for this is that the aesthetic works as a costly
signalling mechanism. If you're going to start a cafe with expensive coffee
machines (a high end, commercial espresso machine will be ~$20 000, with a
similar cost for a grinder), you're likely to also invest in design that's
trendy.

The key will be seeing how the aesthetic evolves as style changes- when
industrial chic is no longer fashionable, will AirBnBs still subscribe to it?
I suspect not.

~~~
k-mcgrady
> We were searching for good espresso by looking for cafes that had the
> industrial aesthetic- bare wooden tables, vaguely scandinavian furniture,
> Edison bulbs. It worked without fail; every cafe we stopped in that
> subscribed to the aesthetic had great coffee."

Did you try any cafés that didn't share that aesthetic? It's quite possible
that 'good coffee' in that region is the standard. Or that you simply got
lucky when selecting.

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twoodfin
It's hard to deny that there's a dominant Airbnb aesthetic, and that it shares
many genetic traits (mid-century modern furniture) with the "hip" interior
design that seems to have taken over at least the urban Western world in the
last 15-20 years.

But first, even as this aesthetic is becoming passé, we should recognize its
massive penetration into our commercial lives as a huge achievement (one
certainly assisted by technology and a more mobile, wealthier society). The
coffee shops, restaurants, and department stores that served most of our
parents 30 years ago had terrible design even when they could be said to have
design or style at all.

Second, I don't think most design trends emerge as sudden and radical
departures from the norm, especially when it comes to commercial endeavors
that can't afford to be too risky or off-putting. But when we look back at the
style of the mid-2010's from 15 or 20 years from now, I doubt we'll agree that
it simply stagnated. It will have evolved into something noticeably
distinct—humans are creatures of fashion—though the degree of cultural and
regional diversity we had before modern telecommunications and travel is
probably not coming back.

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golergka
It's all part of the creation of globalized culture. Just as billions of daily
active users on Facebook, global blockbusters that don't use a lot of language
to be localizable in all the different markets — we're slowly, but steadily
entering the age where humanity is truly no longer divided along country,
language or culture lines.

And it's affecting higher classes earlier than lower; the same effect was
already in place in early 19th century across the whole Europe's fashionable
salons, with the same interior design fashions and french books. Now it's
truly spreading to middle class: it's not only about lattes, it's also about
cultural and social values, TV shows that we watch and books that we read.

And in my humblest of opinions, all things considered, this can only be a good
thing.

~~~
hyperbovine
> we're slowly, but steadily entering the age where humanity is truly no
> longer divided along country, language or culture lines.

Not exactly sure how you reached this conclusion in an age when overt racism
is being plainly embraced by large swathes of the electorate throughout Europe
and North America. I don't feel like we've ever been more divided in my
lifetime.

~~~
Analemma_
It's possible for both of you to be right. I don't agree with everything Ross
Douthat says, but he had an interesting column a little while ago claiming
that the non-nationalist "global elite" constitute their own tribe, which has
identical characteristics regardless of where in the world they are:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/opinion/sunday/the-myth-
of...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-
cosmopolitanism.html). It's possible that this tribe is growing, but is not
currently all-encompassing, and the reactions against it are the movements
that you are referring to.

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someone7x
The headline had me expecting to read yet another SV polemic: it's not just
SF, but now the whole world is under attack from the bad SV people and their
imperialist ambitions! /s

But when I read the article, I see it's a lot of charged words like
"gentrification" to describe the phenomenon of "it's gone mainstream", and
"depersonalization" to describe "it's not as good as it once was".

Airbnb is becoming popular and converging. Seems like a very believable and
predictable possible outcome.

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trevyn
Or maybe humans inherently enjoy clean, natural building materials and
avocados.

~~~
crpatino
How do you explain the diversity of cultures across history, and across
different continents?

~~~
trevyn
Climate and GDP per capita.

~~~
rvense
Whilst there's obviously some influence from climate on the differing clothing
fashions in Australia and Greenland, do you honestly think that this is able
to account for cultural preferences for, say, water colour landscape paintings
versus intricate calligraphy in Japan and the Middle East, respectively?

~~~
trevyn
Yes, because climate dramatically affects how nature presents itself in
everyday life.

~~~
rvense
Aha.

How does climate explain changes in art the co-occur with political changes?
Like when Alexander reached Asia, suddenly the sculptures there started
resembling the ones they made in Greece.

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squozzer
I happen to like the look. But certainly one's tastes, should they deviate
from the AirSpace aesthetic, could be incorporated into the search parameters.

Having stayed at BnBs before AirBnb was cool, the usual style I encountered
was one of the following: 1) Antique-y, i.e. an attempt to decorate the
property in period-correct furniture, usually unsuccessfully; 2)
Unapologetically kitschy.

Both "styles" require lots of loud wallpaper.

~~~
zeveb
> But certainly one's tastes, should they deviate from the AirSpace aesthetic,
> could be incorporated into the search parameters.

That would be awesome! Me, I'd love to stay in some cozy Collegiate Gothic,
pseudo-Oxonian place with layers of paint on the plaster, a lush garden, musty
books, the lingering odour of pipe smoke — that's my idea of pleasant.

Spare & bare, by comparison, is … sterile. I want to live someplace made for
living, not for performing surgery.

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notaboutcode
While the minimalist Nordic aesthetic of IKEA certainly plays a large role as
others have pointed out, I find the aesthetic has more to do with what I've
seen Brooklyn homogenize towards over the past 10 years. And behind many of
those spaces are the Haslegrave brothers. [1]

I'm sure this design aesthetic has arisen independently in many different
areas of the world and has seen a convergence due to the factors the article
points out, but at least here in Brooklyn this aesthetic arose in the lofts
along the waterfront and were pushed around the city by the Haslegraves.

Now the loft building that they live in has a steady stream of AirBnb
tourists, unbeknownst to them that the aesthetic they see around the world in
no small part has to do with two brothers living down the hall.

[1]
[http://thescoutmag.com/features/design/1066/the_brothers_has...](http://thescoutmag.com/features/design/1066/the_brothers_haslegrave)

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kristopolous
I despise the aesthetic. I find it fake, disingenuous, a tinsel town bland
look, some ham fisted conformity.

All of the repulsive veneer of the bay with its superficial niceties but
deeply dispassionate and insincere roots, as architecture! It makes me
nauseous. Hate it, hate it, hate it. So passionately...

It's antithetical to a semblance of humanity and devoid of culture. A cold
unwelcoming thing that screams "screw off, you're not welcome here"

~~~
ktRolster
That's.......very passionate

~~~
kristopolous
I honestly think, not to be insulting or childish but actually literal, that
there's some part of many tech people's brain missing... Like Aspergers and
ASD. (I'm certainly not a doctor)

I feel that many tech people lack some human connection. I think this guides
such aesthetics and its disavowing and denial of community and collective
conscious.

It's the only working hypothesis I can think of for why such decisions are
proactively made and why such inordinate amounts of money are spent in such
ways...work-world mcmansioning; a sanitized and saccharine white gloves of
latex treatment.

Maybe I need to form a more detailed pro-vision of what I mean instead of
being all "no".

~~~
tomc1985
It comes from living in a bubble with other nerds who deal with machines all
day. The machines don't care, they don't have emotions. It's why techies have
always struggled with the "human" aspects

But what really kills me are the leaps in logic a lot of SV dips like to
breathlessly promote to their users, who often genuinely look up to their tech
lords and will take their words without further thought. Just the other day
Yelp posted this whole screed about facilitating free speech rights (as in,
preserving the freedom to review businesses on yelp), getting everybody fired
up and diverting attention away from their shady advertising and business
practices.

All of this advocacy, all this diversity, all these stupid little bleeding-
heart SJW tactics... ALL of them are red herrings for deeper agendas, which
are often very weird on account of a prevalence of the personality attributes
you've described.

~~~
Keyframe
It's also really interesting to note how many "tech people" are vocal about
all sorts of things outside of their expertise. You will find 'techies'
experts on everything, it seems. I'm still not sure if this behavioral anomaly
is there in the first place or is it due to the nature of prevalent media that
carries those voices.

~~~
tomc1985
I think it's arrogance. Programming has this weird allure where you think you
understand the rest of the world.

~~~
kristopolous
I had an epiphany about 7 years ago that computers are only collective human
effort. Everything you touch is an idea, thought, and implementation by some
person.

Programming _ought_ to be a rich dive into cultural consciousness, like a
sociologist living with some remote tribe. Instead, we get caught up in the
fetishization and marvel of the machine itself; as if it all has descended
from God and is part of nature.

This is a detriment against seeing our part in the flow of the giant
anarchistic relay race that _is_ technology; when we dip our feet into this
moving river we are part of the river as much as a twig or a rock - disrupting
and modifying the flow; placing it in new directions. But only if we empower
ourselves.

Technology is anywhere from a culminate expression of culture to its artifact.

~~~
ktRolster
I voted you up because, although I'm not entirely sure I agree with you, it
was very eloquently said.

~~~
kristopolous
Where else does software and hardware come from? The neighbor's clever dog?
Some innovative robot?

It's an expression of human culture. That's why the trendiest and not the most
talented people are the most successful and why we currently and have always
lived in an era of very fashionable fad software that isn't very good.

It quickly gets superseded like fashion on a runway because that's what it is.

~~~
ktRolster
The first paragraph is great. It's the next three that really get interesting.

------
bogomipz
The homogeneity is certainly becoming more prevalent however I think the
author is placing a disproportional amount of responsibility for this
phenomenon on Airbnb. The bigger issue is the confirmation bias that social
apps have engendered. I only follow similarly-minded people or I only get
certain type of news pieces in my feed therefore my frame of reference becomes
smaller. Add to this that many products are not content to be a utilitarian
commodity any longer, everything seems to be aspire to be "brand" or at its
logical conclusion "a lifestyle" with its own flagship stores and flagship
stores must exist in all major cities. As the noise gets louder the signal for
brand identity gets louder and louder as well. Its not just cool hotels and
coffee shops however. The previously mundane has gotten in on the act as well.
Any recent visitor to New York City will tell you there is Citibanks, TD
Banks, and Bank of America on almost every block now, often times many per
block. This is in an era where few people have a need for a retail bank
branch. There's an interesting phenomenon whereby these hundred of banks leave
their interior lights on all night because their real purpose is advertising.

None of this bodes well for society. My optimistic self used to think that
there would eventually be a reactionary element against this homogeneity but
I'm not so sure any more.

------
samstokes
It's slightly ironic that Foursquare, the article's first example of this
trend, is based in New York City, not Silicon Valley.

~~~
jdoliner
All tech companies are silicon valley companies when they're being chastised.
When they're being praised though they become evidence that SV's dominance is
waning.

------
Animats
Not Silicon Valley. General Motors, 1958. Watch "American Look"[1], and you'll
see most of the design styles the author is talking about, including the Eames
chair.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS6HZv4GXj8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS6HZv4GXj8)

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abstractbeliefs
We all know that "Like Uber but for <X>" is a bad idea, and many people worth
listening to say that the real value isn't in disruptive verticals, but in
disruptive business models.

So why do we continue to apply it to cities? We see this in every capital city
council scheme trying to be "Silicon Valley for <country>".

I think what we'll see is a bit of an iconoclasm and fall in grace for these
cities and styles. In the same way no one has been able to be better than Uber
or really capture much market, cities trying to displace their native style
with the Valley's will only end up losing their own and being an obviously
poorer copy.

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raziel2701
Well I guess that's the effect of interconnectedness and globalization no?
We're converging towards a more homogenized society in which everything looks
the same. People who used to live and be exposed to their own local
environments and ideas are now exposed to a much broader and non-local view of
the world.

Ultimately this an example of how good we are at exporting culture. Yeah it
kind of sucks that quaint little towns will change to become more like
everything else so perhaps we will lose some sense of identity as we try and
reinvent ourselves according to the new culture. But well, that's the way
things are after all. People change.

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mmagin
I think it's just a newer version of how much American-produced television was
having this affect on the world a generation ago. (Including the dominance of
the New York/Los Angeles dialect.)

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angersock
Only a passing mention in the article, but does anyone else kinda roll their
eyes and groan at the mention of "digital nomads"?

~~~
SpeakMouthWords
What's your preferred term for that lifestyle?

~~~
sotojuan
Remote worker.

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JustUhThought
Keyword: spread

Just as finance has done for resource allocation, information technology is
doing for culture. For better. Or worse.

