ecapskunj

 

(Sorry, this is about junkspace, don’t get mad)

The art of junk, what defines it and what classifies something as junk? I am sure you have all heard the horribly cheesy line “another man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, but if looked at through the lens of architecture, it is pretty like the views of junk space by Koolhaas (junk) and Gruen (treasure). While these opinions are on opposite ends of the spectrum, Dunam-Jones makes the argument, that yes this is “junk”, and that is not necessarily a problem, but it is something that needs to be dealt with architecturally. And so this topic is a tough one for me. While strip malls are not well designed, I still use them quite frequently for one thing or another and I am sure you do too. I think as architects we can redefine “junk” into something that meets our design standards while still functioning for the users. The challenge lies now with convincing clients that this is essential to their business. This leads me to what I think is a major challenge of “junk”, it’s cheap and gets the job done. How can we make junk = design?