>>510634518

> turn-of-century architecture is the same worldwide

not really, it was an eclectic mix of styles which were often inspired by national history or architecture of the past. Gaudi was a famous example but even Serbia had Korunovic with his disctinct style (picrel) inspired by medieval Serbian Morava and Byzantine styles

Art Deco is the first truly international one but even later you had national variations in architecture, even within modernism. You even have it today with something like Neo-Andean

What gives a city soul is if its a living organism, growing naturally from the people who live there and who live its distinct mark upon it If your city is being built by international and modern corporations who make generic architecture it's not going to look "soulful" it's going to look generic. If you showed me a pic of Warsaw and told me its some German city I'd believe you