Monstrous Roads and Junksapce Buildings

Modern cities often alienate their inhabitants as their instinct is to change with the sole motivation of working more efficiently. This goes for almost every American city as we have been told countless times, but even old cities like London might now have this issue. As an anecdotal experience, the two Londoners that I have talked to perceive their city as a place that builds not for humans but to make money. I see major cities in Mexico heading in the same direction and it obviously does not stop there. After reading Everyday Urbanism, I realize that cities build for its inhabitants’ daily routines rather than their lived experience, turning the city into a machine built to perform and satisfy basic needs rather than a social construct. The best example I can think of is Houston, Texas. Every few years a freeway in Houston gets beefed up. The Katy Freeway is currently the world’s widest and last time I was in town I was told that 45 North, which runs perpendicular to the Katy freeway will soon be widen, two years after highway 290 got widen and as highway 99 is being upgraded to be the city’s third beltway. The person who told me this does not see anything wrong with this as he thinks will help Houstonians move faster in their daily lives, but I think most of us will agree that beefing up highways is not the solution. It is just the feasible thing to do as going for the roots of the problem would be much more difficult. Anyways, urban planning is not our business, buildings are, and I only mention this because I see highways as urbanists’ version of junk space in that they are a by-product of modernity. A couple of weeks ago some agreed that if people want junk space, we as architects should provide it to them. I do not agree with this but also did not know how to formulate an argument that would not sound arrogant, as if we know better. However, we are opposed to know better and giving more junk space to the people is like adding more lanes to the highways. People only want junk space because that is what they know will help them with their daily routines at this moment, but it will not make the city a better place to experience life, which even if it is out of our hands is our goal.

Katy Freeway during pick hours              45 North during most of the time (5 blocks from where I lived)