Re-engage to Remove Junk Space
Malls, formerly seen as a catch-all for suburbia, are dying today because the shift of consumerism has out grown the capacity of the space of a mall. These spaces are losing relevance and becoming empty unused spaces. Malls are criticized for becoming spaces to mentally check out, and not necessarily to engage physically in commerce as was the original intent. They are for those who want to see things in first person, but electronic purchasing has become such the norm with different ways to view things or order samples to try on with minimal responsibility to buy. By engaging in this virtual reality, we are transforming our world into junk space. It isn't the spaces themselves, but the lack of use which makes junk space. By re-engaging our surroundings and re-activating what we have built before, we can remove the junk space by using it as space for opportunity to engage.
I believe that we do need to re-engage the commercial spaces of our past but the issue with JunkSpace that Rem talks about is that, ultimately, its made of junk. Slabs of sheetrock on stud walls just don't hold up the way many of the examples of adaptive reuse that we see today. To that end, I don't think we can re-inhabit they way we did before. I believe drastic renovations and probably demolition is required to salvage the land that Junkspace currently occupies.
ReplyDeleteBut, doesn't junk space call for adaptability and it could be made of transforming walls of gold or cheap sheet rock that can be torn out quickly. Either way the space can be transformed into something new like the Chunking Mansion in Hong Kong. To me the space may seem like junk from the first look but it is feeding the community. My question really is how can we make spaces that foster this kind of interaction so our jobs do not become obsolete?
ReplyDeleteBut, doesn't junk space call for adaptability and it could be made of transforming walls of gold or cheap sheet rock that can be torn out quickly. Either way the space can be transformed into something new like the Chunking Mansion in Hong Kong. To me the space may seem like junk from the first look but it is feeding the community. My question really is how can we make spaces that foster this kind of interaction so our jobs do not become obsolete?
ReplyDelete