Towards a new humanity
Dear Architects, I WAnT yOU TO HELP ME MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE,
I know you can help me. But first, what do we want to have happen? How can we change the world for the better? What does ‘better’ even mean? Or ‘the world’? “Whose world?”, you’re probably asking. I’ve got a few ideas to kick start this conversation. Before I begin, I must outline a few things that are vitally important to me:
- EMOTIOnAL COnnECTIOn WITH A PLACE OR OBJECT CREATES MEAnIngFUL ExPERIEnCE.
- COMPUTERS AnD MECHAnIzED PROCESSES SHOULD BE UTILIzED TO EnABLE HUMAnS TO BE EVEn MORE EMOTIOnAL, CARIng, AnD CREATIVE THAn EVER BEFORE.
- DESIgn IS ABOUT EMPOWERIng THOSE WHO USE AnD OCCUPy IT.
Now that I’ve let you know what I value, let’s jump face first into an idea…
Architecture as traditionally thought of (e.g. house with pitched roof, hearth, den, dining room, etc.) is long gone. Moreover the specifically programmed anything is long gone, at least in the context of the city.
I recently spent a few months in new york and was astounded at how richly everyone used each physical location. Street corners as meeting rooms, subway benches as confessionals, sidewalks as strategic planning areas for multinational companies. Multiple, simultaneous realities happening right on top of each other, regardless (and sometimes in defiance) of what the physical world might suggest was possible in a space.
The magic and craziness of new york aside, I see this trend occurring on worldwide scale, due to the rise of socially focused mobile technology. Physical gunk and its limitations previously defined where what could be done when. With business (email, scheduling, collaboration) and social functions (planning, flirting, gossiping, documenting) becoming more accessible and even preferable while mobile, A CLEAVIng OCCURS BETWEEn THE PERCEPTIOn OF THE ExTERnAL WORLD AnD An InDIVIDUAL’S InnER WORLD.
That’s not to say that built environment has become meaningless, just that WE ARE LESS & LESS LIMITED By WHAT IS AROUnD US PHySICALLy. The interchangeability of the machine world has tainted our world. Looking for something to do? Email your boss that great idea you’ve been hatching, text your girlfriend, call your best friend, check Foursquare on your iPhone to see if any other friends are in the area, find a well-reviewed local restaurant, check out the latest celebrity gossip as it breaks, post a haiku on Twitter, take a picture of something weird you saw and blog it, and on and on and on. These ELECTROnIC MEDIATIOnS BRIng US CLOSER TOgETHER AnD PUSH US FURTHER FROM AWAy OURSELVES AnD EACH OTHER.
So, what to do? How can we make space that is relevant in the face of these micro-realities? Should we look back to the high modernists with their blank spaces were anything can happen? no, I think those ultra-multi-use spaces got it wrong; first by denying the idiosyncratic, messy side of humanity, second by not providing the necessary emotional hooks for people to build meaningful experiences. Plug ourselves into the Matrix, perhaps? not that either, though what’s happening with augmented reality opens up innumerable ways to experience a single point in space. I believe that THE MAnnER In WHICH A SPACE IS FRAMED, THE InTEnT WHICH IT WAS COnSTRUCTED WILL PLAy A CRUCIAL ROLE In THE COMIng yEARS.
The voice with which a space speaks, what it tells us about ourselves will be key, if not the ONLY thing, that distinguishes place A from B. Additionally, I think that the definition of space is being blended directly with experience. The need to build a physical structure to contain experience or communicate a space may soon be obsolete. Architecture without buildings has the potential to directly address eletronic mediation of reality and the dichotomy of togetherness/remoteness that stems from it. I want architecture to be a more complete and compassionate expression of the human condition. Because of its material nature architecture always seems like it’s playing catch up to new manufacturing processes, social revolution and technologies; I DOn’T THInK ARCHITECTURE HAS TO LAg BEHInD. I believe that the next wave of rapid manufacturing will help carry architecture forward towards the idiosyncratic, the fickle, the human.
I’D LIKE My ARCHITECTURE TO BE An ExPRESSIOn OF HUMAnITy; A FEELIng, AS ExPERIEnCE.
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