essay - GMAT: Issue 17

"Public buildings reveal much about the attitudes and values of the society that builds them. Today's new schools, courthouses, airports, and libraries, for example, reflect the attitudes and values of today's society."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
I agree with the idea that buildings represent the society's attitudes and values to the extent that buildings represent the society's level of modernization. In other words, beyond the extend, I don't agree with the idea, because buildings are more influenced by architectural methods or movement than by people's attitudes and values.

I can take an example of how buildings represent the level of modernization or industrialization: the early Roman era and the late Roman era. To our surprise, the difference between the early Roman's buildings and the late Roman's ones is astonishingly clear in terms of quality. In the early Roman era, the buildings, ranging from resident's houses to bridges to the Colosseums, were brilliant. On the other hand, in the late Roman era, the quality level apparently went down as well as the arts did in accordance with Roman Empire's decline. In the sense, buildings show the society's development level.

At the same time, I believe that buildings are just buildings, and that human beings' attitudes and values cannot be limited to the buildings. It's not happed that buildings perfectly represent our ideas and believes. I also think that buildings are more affected by architectural aspects. That is, for instance, airports around the world are getting similar with each other at time goes. We can infer that they got that from security or design point view. Airports, which are especially function-oriented composures, are similar in United States of America, one of the most advanced country, to in Congo, one of the poorest countries.

In conclusion, I agree with the idea that building shows our ideas or values, but it is limited. We cannot inject our ideas or philosophies into buildings that we construct, and most important our construction methods or the trends much more influence the appearances of buildings.