What is your waffle house order??
In the real world products respond to the users. The "junkspace" is a response to the consumer. When reading Koolhass's "Junkspace", all I could think about is the mall I grew up going to. As a consumer I never once questioned the way the building looked or functioned. To me it served its purpose well. It gave people somewhere to be. When I was young I remember al the teenagers hanging out around the mall (the mall rats, but our hung out around the theater). I couldn't wait until I was old enough to do the same. But, when I reached the age to drive my friends and I to the mall to simply hang-out we couldn't. The mall had made a rule that anyone under the age of 18 had to have a guardian present after 3pm. A crushing blow to all of the teenagers looking for somewhere to be. What we did instead is we all hung out at the Walmart or waffle house. Two of the structures that we architects love to bring up the most, with negative connotations. The reason we chose those two places is because they were available. They were the only places that stayed open late. They were safe places where our parents knew where we would be. So, when Rem Koolhass said, "Junkspace does not pretend to create perfection, only interest" I could relate to that.
Consumers (teenagers) are not concerned with the formal language of a building or if the structure is being honest to them / itself. They just want a place to be. Somewhere that keeps them out of the elements and, in the case of junkspace, provides entertainment or services.
So, if architecture, generally, is a profession of providing consumers with a product they want, then junkspace is successful.
ps anyone wanna go to waffle house later??
Hot take: the Waffle House has the best architectural language of all franchised restaurant chains at any price range. I know I bring up Waffle House a lot in the context of functionalist buildings, but it's actually because i really like how they're done. It's just a griddle and a line of cooks, and that's the parti. Everything is the line and building is just this long skinny thing and everyone has a seat that's at least close to a window or close to the counter where the action is, and the result is this really recognizable building form that, at least to me, is iconic.
ReplyDeleteOh, and smothered, covered, and peppered, with 2 scrambled eggs and a plain waffle.
I definitely agree with what you said about Rem's saying Junkspace doesn't create perfection, just interest. Growing up in a small town we would also always hang out at the waffle house after every football game. It became this kind of grimy, always busy mecca for basically my entire high school to meet up every Friday night. And now even in college whenever anybody else wants to go. So in this case, like you said Junkspace is successful.
ReplyDeleteI agree Tre, I also grew up in a town where we would hang out around Waffle House or Sonic. These spaces gave us a safe area to hangout and not be cooped up in the house bugging our parents to go somewhere. These places created that interest that Koolhaas talks about.
ReplyDeleteTre great post. I find it ironic that the buildings architects tend to hate are the one that are most often used... like Walmart. Rem comes off as arrogant to me to write off the mall or Walmart as bad architecture when they get the job done extremely well.
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