1. The Culture of Congestion
Honestly, I thought the
reading was a bit strange. Some aspects were a little hard to follow or seemed
out of place for me (ex. the part about cows and the “barrels of love”). But I find the main idea of how unplanned
spaces can be more powerful than planned spaces particularly interesting.
Because in a way, it is seemingly impossible for an architect to plan an
unplanned space (which I guess is the beauty of it). In the reading, when
lights are added to the beach to stretch the useable hours into the night best
highlighted this idea for me. Where some might think the experience becomes
less desirable at night, Koolhaas suggests that the artificiality actually
makes it better and thus becomes the attraction.
The idea that the artificiality was a spontaneous decision that completely changed part of the experience is really interesting and leads me to question how we can plan room for that kind of spontaneity into design today. Or is it something we should try to plan for at all?
ReplyDeleteI find the solution of using artificial light as a way in increasing the availability of usable hours of the space interesting because it reframes the motive for why people use that space. Personally, I would go to the beach to experience the natural elements...like the sun. His solution disregards this motive. It's interesting because he treats the beach at coney island to be a spectacle, and that becomes the major driver for why people visit, to visit this new attraction of artificiality.
ReplyDeleteI also got a bit lost in this reading, but my comment here is to let you know that the barrels of love where an actual thing with a interesting concept behind
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC4_wo2r3Go