Why Was it Always Raining in Blade Runner???
Turns out, Ridley Scott wasn't super thrilled with the set design and decided that the best way to showcase it was with a constant torrential downpour (there is also something about it representing LA's future pollution problems, but that explanation wasn't as fun). After watching the movie I found this fact to be super interesting. It appears that Ridley Scott was so affected by his own "culture of congestion" created in the film that he felt he had to cover it up with tons of gallons of water. This got me thinking, is this hyper-congestion something we should fear or something we could look forward to? The Made in Tokyo reading got me hopeful.
Because Tokyo is a very modern city, it has dealt with space and zoning much differently than America or Europe. Buildings in Tokyo tend to collage multiple types of functions together due to the nature of congestion that they are currently experiencing. One pairing that really struck me as an odd couple was the combination of a driving range and taxi company. These smart and functional solutions help create a more interesting city, one where congestion is just another design parameter that allows you to try new things. As cities across the world rapidly grow, these types of solutions are needed more and more. If Blade Runner can teach us anything, it should be that future congestion can be wild and fun. No need to drench it all in rain... unless Roy is making a really cool monologue about attack ships somewhere near Orion, then yeah, we really need rain for a scene like that.
I think cities like Tokyo and New York are great as well; they become an architects playground. However, I do think that regulation on how far these playgrounds reach is needed because of the effect that these super congested cities have on the human brain. There are a ton of negative effects in cities that tend to disorient, trap, and overwhelm those who live in them. The good thing is, we have a real opportunity to change what those cities may look like and how they effect the psychology of the people around them.
ReplyDeleteIs there a pun in the 'driving' range and taxi company? -asking for a friend.
ReplyDeleteI like your point of the collage of functions. With more congestion the buildings (specifically interiors) must be able to serve necessity in the future.
<3 -Tre
The rain is the most natural thing happening in the entire film. Everything is engineered. Even the people struggle with their own humanity. Even Deckard comes to terms that Rachael and Roy understand humanity more than he does - and they are completely artificial products of 'modern' society. Roy is not even 4 years old and gets it.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting the time setting is 2019 - subsequent film is in 2049. Its a fictional tale of this trajectory of a culture of congestion continuing on and spreading everywhere. L.A. in 2019 is supposed to be a city of decadence, total luxury, and relaxation. Labor is outsourced to the extent that humanity creates a second humanity for that role - replicants. Blade runner is an analysis of congestion and taking it to the next level - which is interesting and scary. Tokyo and New York but with physical humans AND societal structures.
The fact that Ridley Scott didn't like the set design is a little bit of a bummer to me. I thought it was great, but I definitely know that I wouldn't want to live in an environment that is so congested and raining constantly. I mean I feel like you would never be completely dry, ever. It is funny to me how I can like something so much while I'm sitting on the couch at home, but if I were to have to actually experience it in real life, I know that I would hate it. Kind of weird. Also, hot take, Deckard himself was a replicant and the whole film was him figuring it out throughout the course of him hunting his own kind.
ReplyDeleteI wish we can set aside a class at the end of the semester to argue whether or not Deckard was a replicant. Either way it makes you question the quality of humanity.
DeleteI want to firstly highlight your point that "congestion is just another design parameter that allows you to try new things." Then it leads to a second point of mine that city is the frozen habit of life. The example of LA VS Tokyo shows two different modes of living habit revealed by city forms. They give two kinds of congestions for designers to try out their respective things.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is pretty funny how the environment was set up. Made me think more about climate change and the absence of daylight. What would architecture be without daylight? can building survive without the sun? Looking at the cycle of life, specifically the cycle of cells and matter, it is obvious that the sun is critical in how we survive on earth, without it, how would life be, absolutely impossible.
ReplyDeleteThis take us back to the notion of "congestion" which to me also mean asphyxiation somehow, it is like an environment in which we can't breathe, an environment that doesn't allow us to escape.
Also, I love the rain in the movie but again, it is a reflection of the lack of care that we have towards nature, and our greed and introverted nature(can we blame technology and science for it?)
The future although unknown, if driven by science would have no trace of humanity at all, only mutations (as shown in the movie), and to me architecture is a reflection of human life, everything that human feel, need, should be reflected by it, otherwise, it is a dead end. So the rain without the sun, kind of mean that we are headed on the wrong direction and that there might be a time when there would be no way out. That's how I compared your question to my interpretation of the setting of Blade Runner (The replicants are an example of that).