In a world that is ran by consumer culture, it is not often that we ask why things are priced the way they are. Late last year, entrepreneur and architect David Galbriath commented on The Penthouse of Villa Stein that hit the real estate market at what he thought was a surprisingly low price. Designed by Le Corbusier, the Villa Stein stands to symbolize the work of an architect credited with the creation of architecture’s modern movement. Galbraith poses an interesting question about our world’s consumer culture in his post, “If Famous Architecture were priced Like Paintings, a Le Corbusier Would Cost the same as the Entire American GDP”. A building that is arguably one of the top 500 most important houses of the late 19th/ early 20th centuries is going for the same price per square foot as some of the suburban homes in Paris designed by unknown architects. “In other words, a work of art that you can actually live in has zero premium over a commodity item, but one that you can look at has a premium factor of 13 million over a commodity one”. Is it that our commodity driven mentality has lead paintings and objects to rapidly increase in price or has our practicality with money and value completely been erased?
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