Junkspace for Junkhabits

Architecture has always been an enforcer of current culture and values. Ideas, faiths, people, and technologies held in high regard are reflected in the built world. If junkspace has permeated architecture to the point of becoming controversial, what do the things we’re building say about what we now find important?

We cannot talk about junkspace without also considering everything else that we constantly interact with. Our products and food are quickly, inexpensively, and inauthentically produced. Many of us multi-task to the point that none of those tasks is carried out to its full potential. Twenty-first century American life needs large quantities, low prices, and fast delivery, and it wants them all simultaneously. Koolhaas describes junkspace as having attributes such as “replac[ing] hierarchy with accumulation” and as being “overripe and undernourishing.” These phrases are not limited to his chosen subject of criticism. The underlying causes of junkspace begin far outside the walls of a Walmart, but current architecture is serving as an enabler of some of the habits our society has taken up.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the principles of building and using junkspace, the type is certainly related to aspects of the lifestyle currently being lived by the vast majority of the population. While we want to believe architecture is an all-powerful, creative and noble field which can be a catalyst of change, it does not have the ability to completely break out of the greater economic and social boundaries which bind it. What we build is ingrained in our culture. As long as the desire for the fast, the easy, and the cheap exists, every industry, including architecture, will be there to satisfy it.