The Voyager's Junkspace
Over traveling through several airports this past week, I
started reflecting on Koolhaus’ “Junkspace” essay. Indeed, these spaces do exist, but I wasn’t
really aware of the space until reading ‘Junkspace’. During a layover in Detroit, I began to notice
how the corridors move in a straight line each section treated like the
last. "Junkspace" as Koolhaus puts it, uses confusing scales and proportions on building facades, interiors that look like exteriors. All of this is different from Grand
Central Terminal for instance which gives visitors a great sense of arrival. Here space is treated differently with different scales and use of light and materials.
Living in Mount Pleasant, SC I witness
shopping center after shopping center each seeking their own identity but each
treating every shopping space the same.
How is it that we’ve become so good at making boring spaces. It will be
interesting to see how an increasing virtual shopping landscape will affect ‘Junkspace’
is it possible that Amazon will become the next horizon for Junkspace,
if so, will physical Junkspace continue to exist? What is the architect’s role in solving the
dilemma of Junkspace?
Although Junkspace refers to a lot of different architectural markets, your look at shopping malls vs online shopping is very perceptive. Will a new type of Junkspace emerge in the void of malls? Online / with technology? Or will we step out of the Junkspace "funk" and create a new/better typology and methodology for the built environment? I bet Koolhaas is still one step ahead of us and already has some ideas on the matter...
ReplyDeleteWith the introduction of different alexa / google / automated platforms the line between our real life and the internet is completely blurring. Where a lot of retailers connect with you via screen, the new shopping frontiers might have less to do with an interaction over a screen and rather some other way of browsing a shop. I think this would be a super interesting project.
DeleteMaybe we will be the authors of the new Junkspace - a better junkspace if you will. With technology taking so much of us and our lives - will we be fighting to design spaces that draw people out of their screens and lives into the public instead?
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