Metropolis: the city of now, or of the future?
Koolhaas looks at the metropolis and the experiment of taking the athletic club 90 degrees into this tower of many programmatic elements described. A conclusion he came to described that the exterior of the 100-Story Building is rather static. This is in contrast to the interior where almost all forms of living take place overlapping each other daily. The building has all of these self-sustaining qualities that basically create a world within the larger world that is the metropolis of New York. This is what Koolhaas described as “islands” in the array of different metropolis’ we have created.
The connection I am drawing here however is the connection
to suburbia. Is suburbia not worlds within worlds? Communities within
Communities? I think it is. However, there is a prominent difference. Suburban
communities just have living dwellings and not these other programs described in
the 100-Story Building. These programs that make the 100-Story Building
desirable could make other worlds desirable if they were also included in a
self-sustain way to entice people in.
Rem Koolhaas' 'Bigness' talks about the scale of skyscrapers and how they develop their own rules. Metropolitan architecture and big architecture has its own realm of criticism. At a certain height rules changes - environments change.
ReplyDeleteTo your thoughts Shane, I think it is an interesting parallel (perpendicular) because after a certain distance away - that is the farther away you travel horizontally into suburbia - the rules begin to change. Less buses, less commercial buildings, etc. I think its the same vertically, and horizontally.
Is this why people either aspire to live on the top levels of skyscrapers or out in the suburbs? Is Urbanism the ground level of city centers and everyone just tries to distance themselves from it until the rules change?
I agree with your point that the conglomeration of program is what separates metropolis from suburbia and where the interest lies. I also find Jeremy's comment of searching for the level where the 'rules change' very intriguing: why is it that humans seem to search for that distance? I think it is more than that, however; one can argue that the townhouses in the Upper East Side are just as valuable and desired. Perhaps it is the middle ground that people wish to avoid: separated from the community and life of the street level and missing the perspective and beauty of the penthouse.
ReplyDeleteSuburbia is a fascinating topic. Near- universally sneered at (by architects), and yet everybody is moving there. Perhaps something about the appeal of owning your own little square of earth. How can we come closer to fulfilling the promise of suburbs - the best of urban and rural?
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