The new Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Modern architecture is very disappointing.

For an allegedly forward-looking discipline, it seems to me that all they provide is a view to the past. Towards concrete and metallic monstrosities that show more of humanity's ability to extract from the earth, than to live within in.

Let's go by examples: Hey, why not the Architectural Digest hot projects of 2012?

Number one:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow

.. not a goddamn tree in site. Edit: They messed this link up. Select forward and then go back...

Number two:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=2

Ooooh, at least they have grass and water in that one. Is that "river" chlorinated?

Number three:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=3

Is that a greenhouse without the green?

Number four:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=4

I christen that the "skyshiv"

Number five:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=5

... is that a building with an obese ring of fat? That is definitely a modern representation of humanity.

Number six:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=6

Okay, grass on the roof, I can get with that. Not bad...

Number seven:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=7

Would you like some concrete with your concrete? Make sure to light up the concrete... Well, it is a desert...

Number eight:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2012-01/best-architectural-projects-slideshow#slide=8

... the aliens have landed.

Okay, you get the point.

In the age of kudzu, inspiration, and infinite amounts of plastic construction materials, is it really so hard to imagine more organic yet amazing structures? I don't mean grass on the goddamn roof. How about Rivendell [http://ringtrilogy.tripod.com/lotr/lotr-28.jpg]? How about the Avatar home tree? How about towers that rise above a forest of trees rather than a sea of concrete, and connect above it?

Or, how about a modern Hanging Gardens of Babylon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon]? Want to be a famous architect? How about you recreate something worthy of one of the moniker of the seven most famous architectural structures in history?

Immerse people in nature. It's clear that we will basically pave over the earth. How about architecture discovers ways of integrating our natural past into our technological present? How about a wetland that isn't just a disgusting mosquito farm?

We NEED nature around us, and not a couple trees sticking out of the sidewalk that drunken douchebag fratboys will mess up every weekend.

Create life. If people are willing to build a huge dome of glass, they'd be willing to do anything I've proposed.

Sigh, the CAD programs probably suck for this though.