What Makes a McMansion Bad Architecture?
I conjecture that the entirety of architectural design theory is just an attempt to create a formal system such that the styles preferred by people that architects don't like are "bad", and the styles preferred by people that architects do like are "good".<p>The class of people who own McMansions are not very popular among the class of people who write about architectural design on tumblr.<p>If the conjecture is true then it should be possible to find cases of houses that clearly defy these principles of "mass", "balance" etc., but which are deemed "good" through a series of ad-hoc exceptions and explanations. Those houses will probably not be suburban.<p>De gustibus non est disputandum. This is equally true when you can create a low-dimensional approximation to your taste in terms of abstract principles such as "mass" and "balance".