This is an

Roman Mars.

It is the most reviled form of contemporary architecture there is.

A McMansion is an oversized house usually over 3,000 square feet that doesn't really

interact with its environment whether that's the houses around it or if it's built in the

middle of nowhere that environment as well.

This is Kate Wagner, creator of the blog McMansion Hell,

where she helps readers like me understand what is and isn't a McMansion.

And why we hate them? The main signs of a McMansion are that they're built cheaply with very cheap materials, new materials, rarely ever traditional materials.

As you can tell by the name of the blog and by her

general demeanor, Kate Wagner hates the Mac Manchin. They're built without

any sort of consideration for the grammar of design.

Since the creation of this show, I've used the word architecture in the most tenuous and

metaphorical of ways. But according to Kate, the

McMansion may not even qualify as architecture at all. There's no real

architecture in the McMansion and it's two ostentations to be considered folk architecture.

They have no architectural commentary.

All they do is represent sort of an ideal of wealth.

But it's more an image of wealth rather than wealth itself.

It's very much meant to convey that one message,

that I have a lot of money and a lot of space.

And I am putting it in this house that is so tall and so massive that you feel intimidated by it just as you should feel intimidated by my apparent wealth.

...