The Reality of Artificiality.
Koolhaas makes his point about the potential for creating artificial forms of reality in which people can live their lives; the city within a city, "barrels of love", and fake dairy cows that produce a higher quality of milk than a live cow. Analyzing these ideas through the eyes of someone who has grown up outside of the city, enjoys the actual, non set-up, pursuit of the opposite sex, and has experience milking cows on a dairy farm, the first thing that comes to mind in terms of a reaction to Koolhaas is..."have you ever smelled fresh air, seen grass, or physically interacted with another human being?"
Despite his obvious professional success in architecture and his mental understanding of a multitude of "Artificial Reality" scenarios, it seems quite apparent that what he doesn't understand is the Reality of Artificiality". Nature and the "natural" are arguably the most beautiful, enjoyable, compelling elements of life; not only because are real and are accompanied by emotion. Koolhaas claims that the structure of the Metropolis represent a free fall in the space of human imagination, a fall with unpredictable outcome. However, "unpredictable" is the last thing the Metropolis creates. I believe that imagination and unpredictability (excluding traffic) are terms that do not belong within the city limits. And when they are, we create delusion and deception; because it is not until we step foot outside of the city and allow ourselves to be submersed in nature, that our imagination has the ability to free fall and all that is predictable is stripped away. If you're going to be an architect, be an architect. Use design to benefit societies of people, not as an attempt to conquer the world.
Koolhaas seems to be attempting to systematize or mechanize human emotion and interaction in the Metropolis, when by their very nature cannot be so easily ordered. I would disagree with the premise that imagination and unpredictability cannot exist in cities, but not because of any interventions by the architect on the built environment. Rather, imagination and unpredictability are inevitable wherever there are authentic human emotions and interactions.
ReplyDeleteI agree that nothing can be more beautiful than what's natural, however, the metropolis can be just as unpredictable. Metropolis' are filled with so many people, things, and experiences; it's almost as there is nothing that can be predicted with all of these variables. I also think it takes a lot of imagination to come up with some of these "Artificial Realities."
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