History Main / AsceticAesthetic

[[ac:TabletopRPG]]

** Taken UpToEleven in the [[TronLegacy sequel,]] although it's black glossy curvy architecture stuff rather than white glossy curvy archetecture stuff as seen in some other examples.

* Most of the public spaces in MirrorsEdge are this way, albeit with bright colours to offset the white, everything's so ''clinical'' in its cleanliness that it quite effectively drives home how oppressive the regime truly is.

* It's possible that film history remembers the original ''Film/{{Alien}}'' as the first deconstruction of this trope, as the starships were gritty and grimy, just as you should expect a giant long-haul vehicle that is its own repair garage would be ''in space''. Less "sports car," more "Australian outback 4WD".

* This was the design aesthetic for science fiction until ''StarWars'' hit the scene. Chronologically, it is likely the first aversion in film with ''StarWars: ANewHope'', which debuted in 1977 as opposed to ''Alien'' in 1979. ''[[http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm Tales of Future Past]]'' has pages of examples.
** The franchise actually uses it to good effect to contrast the clean, dark and minimalist [[TheEmpire Imperial]] [[TheBattlestar Star Destroyers]] with the dirty and homey Millennium Falcon.
** Semi-inverted in Episode 2, with the Kaminoan homeworld: the Kaminoan buildings seem to be this, with the white minimalistic appearance, except that Kaminoans' vision is mostly in a spectrum that humans can't see. All their artwork and painting is in ultraviolet.

[[LogansRun http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LogansRunAsceticAesthetic_640.jpg]]
[[caption-width:330:[[LightIsNotGood The cleaner the decor]], the [[TownWithADarkSecret uglier the secret]].]]

* The city in ''MirrorsEdge''.

* Most of the public spaces in MirrorsEdge are this way, albeit with bright colours to offset the white, everything's so ''clinical'' in its cleanliness that it quite effectively drives home how oppressive the regime truly is. Only the grimy behind-the-scene spaces like the subway tunnels (excluding subway stations and trains) and maintenance access passages, and the invisible-from-ground-level rooftops look even remotely inhabited.

* Soviet architecture.
** ''What'' Soviet architecture? It's a rich and complex area, with a lots of history and different artistic movements. Of which exactly ''one'' corresponds well to the clean and minimalistic style of this trope -- constructivism. Later it was displaced by neoclassicism and even art deco, and those gave way to functionalism. Brutally simplistic lines of late Soviet apartment blocks don't count, because these weren't conscious artistic decision, and were born from function alone -- the task to build as many housing units as possible as cheaply as possible.

** ''What'' Soviet architecture? It's a rich and complex area, with a lots of history and different artistic movements. Of which exactly ''one'' corresponds well to the clean and minimalistic style of this trope -- constructivism. Later it was displaced by neoclassicism and ever art deco, and those gave way to functionalism. Brutally simplistic lines of late Soviet apartment blocks don't count, because these weren't conscious artistic decision, and were born from function alone -- the task to build as many housing units as possible as cheaply as possible.

* Miranda in ''{{Serenity}}''.

* The TARDIS from ''Doctor Who'', particularly in its original 1960s incarnation before the production team decided to retcon the reason for the Doctor not being able to fly it properly from his not knowing how to the TARDIS being obsolete and knackered. Attempts by some designers to update the look of the TARDIS to make it look consciously futuristic (most infamously [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/TARDIS_console_1983.jpg in the 1980s]]) have, ironically, dated faster. Latterly though the TARDIS set design has moved away from asceticism to embrace [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/gallery/tvmovie/images/1024/dw50.html steampunk]] and [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/medialibrary/s1/images/1024/s1_01_wal_17.jpg?size=1024&promo=/doctorwho/medialibrary/s1/images/main-promo/s1_01_wal_17.jpg&purpose=Computer%20wallpaper&summary=At%20the%20controls%20of%20his%20TARDIS.&info=&tag_file_id=s1_01_wal_17 clapped-out organo-gothic]], with decidedly mixed results.

This may be justified if it's a hospital or high tech factory where everything has to be clean, but usually goes a little farther in making the set dehumanizingly impersonal. Futuristic settings post {{Zeerust}} will usually embrace a form of this trope where [[{{ptitlej7bxdtgx}} Everything Is An iPod In The Future]] and there are ShinyLookingSpaceships. Not surprisingly, the polar opposite of this trope is the UsedFuture, where the edges will be dented, the patina scratched, and the once angelic halogen lights will flicker if they still work at all.

* Patrick Bateman's Apartment in AmericanPsycho

* Soviet architecture was kinda like that.