Junk-me?

I read Junkspace for the first time for one of my undergrad classes but honestly, I didn’t get it at all. I found it interesting and confusing yet not clear enough to question it. This time around, it was different. At the end of Junkspace Koolhaas poses the questions, “Will Junkspace invade the body?” “Has it already?”. Although he talks about a physical invasion, it made me think about a mental invasion. Have I been letting junkspace unconsciously dictate the way I design because I grew up in it? How much of what I design is junkspace?

The Galleria - Houston

Plaza las Americas - Veracruz

I started thinking about it and it made me wonder how much junkspace has already invaded me… How much junkspace is “me”? As a person, and as a designer. A little bit pessimistic like Franco says, but hey! I did grow up going to the mall to hang out with my friends. I loved going to the Galleria in Houston and skiing at their ice ring. Disney trips, big hotels, airports, La Fayette, “outdoor malls” you name it, junkspace -and specifically- simulacrum has always been part of my life. There’s something about it that has always fascinated and repulsed me at the same time but I have never been able to clearly explain it. But, is my work doing it for me? I can only take so much of it, yet I always want to go back (a.k.a. Disney). Heck! One of the reasons why I wanted to be an architect was to design “better” hotels and airports because I loved them so much.  Take the mall for example... I never felt completely “comfortable” going. I still don’t. I like to get in and get out. Big box, mostly artificial light, no views out, people walking like they were outside but they are inside, food courts that smell weird, shops that look the same, a mash of sign designs and plant that don’t seem to belong. Cold and sometimes humid (I lived right on the coast so the air conditioning was colder to attract more people in). People would go to the mall to “take a walk” instead of going to the park. They’d go to “grab some coffee” instead of going to a local shop. I always found it weird but I also always assumed it was in order to people watch. I mean, it is inherited in our culture so it made sense but why choose this junkspace as opposed to another one? Was it driven mostly by the fact that it was conditioned? That it was “all in one place”? I think Koolhaas is right, I feel like in this case it was. Even my grandparents would go take walks at the mall because it “wasn’t hot like outside” and they could “see other people”. Not like they could walk across the street and go to the park. That was silly.

So, anyway, to my point. I feel like places like these shaped me in some sort of way into wanting to become a designer. I always dreaded places that were structured like the mall because I thought people needed outside interaction (with each other and nature) but I also always loved airports and Disney so what have I really learned from these junkspaces and how much have these junkspaces influenced me and my design? Their design is ingrained in my memory and like Brittany said, we draw from our experiences and memories when we design so I wonder… how junk am I?

Hotel in Puerto Rico

Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - Paris Airport

P.S. Funny thing is, in recent years, my grandparents opted for walking at the park rather than the mall because they wanted "fresh air" and it didn't feel "fake".