European Vs. American Mentality As Seen In Architecture

One of my favorite things about traveling to different places is looking at the architecture. I love buildings. A large percentage of my pictures is of buildings in the various places I travel to. After roaming around Europe for two months, I can conclude that the architecture in Europe is very different than America. I think you can tell a lot about a society and their mentality by the type of buildings that they build.

Let's look at the Austin skyline for example:

Notice the number of large buildings we have. This picture is a little dated as there have been several new buildings that have been constructed since I took that photo. Here are the tallest buildings in Austin:

• The Austonian - 628 ft (208 m) 56 floors
• 360 Condo Tower - 563 ft (172 m) 44 floors
• Frost Bank Tower - 515 ft (157 m) 33 floors

You can see a list of the tallest buildings in Austin here. We have 7 buildings over 100 m and there are 6 more under construction at the moment. I rarely saw such tall buildings while traveling in Europe. Keep in mind that Austin is not even one of the largest cities in America. It's only the 15th biggest city with a population of 758 thousand people with a metro area of 1.6 million people. Take a look at all the major US cities and you'll see that all of them have impressive skylines.

Let's take a look at a typical European city that's comparable in size to Austin. One of my favorite mid size European city happens to be Dresden, Germany.

Unlike American cities, European cities don't look impressive at all from a distance. There are not a large number of tall, large buildings that dominate the skyline. Instead, European cities are much more artistic. Take a look at these buildings in Dresden:

Notice how artistic they are with the colors and sculptures. In general, European cities emphasize the city's art and culture. Even large, wealthy, European cities such as Munich or Paris are built in this manner. There are very few buildings that will grab your attention from a distance. European cities are meant to be enjoyed up close and in person. You can't appreciate buildings like this from 5 or 10 miles away.

Meanwhile, American cities build buildings to emphasis the city's economic strength, prosperity, and status. The Austonian represents this:

There is no economic reason to build buildings such as The Austonian in Austin. It is purely a status symbol for the residents of the building and the city. The whole mentality of Americans can be seen in the architecture of the buildings that we build. It's to show strength, prosperity, and wealth. It represents what is known around the world as The American Dream. Most Americans I know (myself included) have big dreams of wanting to become "the next big thing" in their field. You can see this mentality at work at the buildings we build in all of our cities. We have a very ambitious, competitive nature and mentality. Heck, I want to live in the Austonian. :)

Contrast this with Europe where the cities are built to emphasize their art, culture, and history. Europeans have a very different mentality than Americans. The mentality there emphasizes people's welfare, happiness, and quality of life vs. material wealth and economic status. Hence you see this in their politics as well. Most European countries have a more socialist policy, stronger labor laws, more welfare benefits, and much more vacation time. It's why you see Europeans traveling so much. They have enough vacation time to do it.

Which is the better model? I think both have their advantages and disadvantage. American mentality is definitely more individualistic, independent, and competitive, while Europeans seem to have a more social, cooperative mentality.