#im probably gonna spend today drawing fuckass buildings instead of writing
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okay ya'll i got another question. what do you think the architectural styles in revachol are like? are there any reoccurring design elements throughout the game or is just old buildings:tm:? i've noticed hexagons, wood, metal, and large pane glass windows, but that's about it.
if you think about the different eras of revachol here's kinda what you get. LONG FUCKING THOUGHTS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE INCOMING (2k words. i did it again. i went on a tangent). warning for mentions of genocide, mentions of culture erasure, colonization shit, racism, classism, etc
in the beginning, first settlements:
before revachol was the revachol of current-era, it was a bunch of settled townships. i feel like there's an indigenous population here that has been since wiped out / only pockets remain. that's colonization for you! but i also feel like the indigenous population got worked into the culture of revachol as well. there's old, old pagan roots that seep through and into everything. the basis of revachol's culture is found in these pagan roots, mixed in with the culture of every nation in elysium to make one revacholian/insulindean culture.
at some point the townships, villages, and cities all unified into one Large city of Revachol. this is known as the Unification. i'm not sure where the original revachol was. there were a lot of folk-style houses and frontier-type buildings. architecture wasn't really something payed attention to: people just built what they could where they wanted to build it in the way they new how to build. so i think like old, wild-west type frontier shit, but all sorts of different folk influences from the countries they emigrated from. it might even have been less-sophisticated than that, considering it was 380 years ago. maybe stuff like the church in martinaise
all the old suzerainty monarchy buildings and neighborhoods:
(in jamrock especially, which i think is the heart of revachol and where the monarchy used to be. the old wealth in west revachol vs the new wealth and gentrification and corporate greed now in revachol east. at some point the monarchy decided jamrock would be the new heart of the world, it being in the center of revachol as well.)
(cont. under cut, this is long)
after the unification, as the monarchy builds up, you get an era of mass-urban planning, reworking the old neighborhoods into new, architecturally designed ones to give revachol a unified sense of culture. there's a LOT of different leaders, so there's a LOT of different architectural styles that come out of these eras, based on what the leader was interested in / if they even cared about rebuilding
the styles probably have various influences from revachol's various imports: samara (the apricots), iilmaraa (marble and tobacco. this is definitely a HUGE influence bc they would build all their palaces out of this marble; i think they probably have something like ile marat revival, which is just copying ancient iilmaraan temples and cities), semenine (sugar), and cocaine from mundi. underneath all of it is the original insulindean folk architectural styles, and the original folk beliefs, superstitions, and religions
here's a few styles from this era that i think would be there:
the monarchy based off old-world temples and churches. holy and powerful. these are the oldest
residential and neighborhoods of a sort of "mundi revival" which is replicating the styles of the home country (bc these r colonists that come in). a nostalgia for the world left behind
then art deco and art nouveau, but it wouldn't be like our art deco and art nouveau. maybe the nouveau is oceancore instead of leaves and flowers? maybe the deco has to do with airships? conquering the pale? sunrise and light? not sure. these represent the progress and the "golden age" in a way that is futuristic and forward-looking.
GOLD from the Filippe III reign, and maybe gold is synonymous with downfall? bc i know that the cocaine and the gold era is when revachol really went to the pits. i feel this style turns away from the art found in the old government/monarchy buildings, the revival styles, and the deco and nouveau styles. tasteless, gaudy trash that represents as much opulence and luxury as possible. i feel like this sets revachol's standard for wealth and luxury: revachol east's new buildings are still based off the filippean gold style. this is the newest architectural style of the golden era of the suzerainty
not sure who's reign is the one of mass urban planning. someone gets it in their head that revachol should have wide boulevards, big parks, and a metro and tram system (like what happened in paris, france in the 1930s). maybe Flippe II, the Opulent? but im not sure how the technology would line up. regardless, by the time the communists take over in 02, revachol has been urban planned the shit, old old neighborhoods destroyed, a big, sprawling, sometimes nonsensical metro put in, electric lamps put in, a trolley system put in. modernized. during this era of modernization was when the most art deco and art nouveau styles came in, so a lot of the "newer" stuff (before the gold craze) such as the trolleys and the metro and the electricity and the power plants and the promenades and boulevards, etc. are in this style. a lot of this urban planning also stems out of the inherent racism and classism in the concept of "urban blight" and needing to "prettify" the city, ie erase the poor and/or immigrant neighborhoods and make this a beautiful, white city again (we're a revacholian, insulindean people, not a mixed melting pot. very western european ideals)
the only thing always left untouched are the massive temples of the monarchy, built out of iilmaraan marble and other imports from the rest of elysium (being the original center of the world, revachol is full of all sorts of influences from everywhere. not sure about seol. seol's closed its gates, so not a lot of stuff comes out of there, i think)
the commune:
communism is about give everyone everything equally. whoever was leader of communist insulinde / revachol at the time (in between the civil wars) started a mass systematization project.
so they started bulldozing all the suzerainty-era revival, deco, and nouveau neighborhoods and replacing them with huge, monolothic, wall-like apartment blocks so everyone has equal living spaces. mass housing projects! yippee! now everyone has somewhere to live at least
communism comes with an attempt at coming up with a Single Unified Revacholian Culture which includes no religion, glorification of industry and agriculture (ie power to the lower class and the workers) and a push for industrial and agricultural progress, celebration of natural landforms, celebration of the old folk origins before colonization, etc. many plans are drawn up. there's a scheme to rebuild revachol from the ground up and make it a bastion of communist glory at the center of the known world. this systemization extends to other cities on insulinde as well, where industry is built up and mass housing projects are started. this is the era when you get upgraded factories and infrastructure. it's possible the commies built the 8/81. obviously, plans are cut short. there's mismanagement, corruption, civil wars, and finally the coalition bombing.
there's a few styles here as well:
brutalism, a testament to modern communist progress
revacholian revival, an attempt at a new take on the old mundi revival style architecture of the suzerainty
a lot of national symbols are incorporated into both brutalist and revival styles. lots of folk patterns, folk housing, folk symbolism. the apartment blocks look like impersonal monuments, but each one of them has their own stylings and paintings and colors
government buildings incorporate both brutalist progressivism and national folk glory
the folk shit comes from old, original insulindean indigenous/pagan influences. there's also influences from the folk stuff from mundi with a few of the import countries thrown in such as ilmaraa, etc. some attempt at revitalizing an appreciation for the places people came from to form a completely new, completely revacholian/insulindean identity
the communists restore (or attempt to / get started on restoring) the suzerainty palaces. most of these palaces are bombed out of existence by the coalition. (that's the burnt-out quarter in jamrock). a few palaces still remain on the outskirts of revachol, or in east revachol, or along the beaches, etc., but these are mostly pleasure palaces and residences for old kings and most, if not all, have fallen into disrepair. none of the government buildings are left
the new:
i know the economy is somehow, but im pretty sure during this tax haven, tax boom, whatever, there was a lot of architectural progress. old buildings got updated, some buildings got restored. things that weren't too expensive of projects to take on
i think there's a new style here that represents hope and optimism. a revival of the art deco style as well as the nouveau (spring blooming associations) as well as new architectural styles involving flashy colors, anti-brutalism, and anti-suzerainty style. taking all the old stuff and deconstructing it, combining the monarchy style with the art deco and the brutalism, making a truly new, unique architecture of revachol. maybe it's called new disco or something haha. it is a counter-culture, revolutionary type of architecture. it takes the monarchy and government styles and makes it for the people. it revitalizes old dreams out of the ashes. it forms something new. it's rebirth
this is when they start building hella' skyscrapers, especially in jamrock which is the heart of the industry, mostly in this new disco style (though the rich out in the east have always built skyscrapers, but theirs, according to the ideas of luxury, are flashy, gold monstrosities, all rigid and gaudy, without the vitality and disorganized chaos of new disco)
then the economy tanks again and revachol once more sinks into hell
you may ask yourself where's international and mid-century modern and minimalist styles? while i absolutely love the former two styles, i just can't see it that revachol would ever be refined. the communist's brutalist structures and stark, fascist government buildings are as refined as it gets. refined, meant to impose, meant to feel safe and strong. otherwise revachol's barely restrained need to live and breathe and shout from the rooftops flows out of every single one of their buildings, even the wealthy
also, a side note. all these architectural styles and shit definitely parallel how technology, furniture, fashion, hairstyles, art styles, literature, etc. are designed. all the ideals that are built into the architecture styles are reflected in the styles of the things the people use and buy and make and the way they look. but i don't know those things that well, i have architecture interests and that's about it, hahaha.
like you know how in game, their technology is completely different looking from ours? it's like ours but to the left. unfortunately, i'm not entirely sure what the designer's inspirations for it all are from, so i don't have much to go off in terms of designing new things
#c4rg0f1l3s#disco elysium#i really want heavy duty elysium concept art#like a big fat guidebook of elysium architectural styles and design styles and all that#PLEASE#im probably gonna spend today drawing fuckass buildings instead of writing#my life is so difficult#im heavy worldbuilding here yall#marfă din elysium
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