Congested Cities
I think every culture has a different approach to how cities function and what a city means to the people who inhabit it. I'm not sure there is a right way or wrong way, unless the city no longer supports the people living in it both physically and mentally. However, I definitely have positive or negative reactions in each city I've been to. Part of this may be aesthetics, part may be how well I'm able to get around, and part of it may be the wellbeing of the cities occupants. I'll be honest when I say there aren't too many American cities I love. Maybe that is because I grew up in the country, but I generally dislike the feel of cities in America. One of the main reasons is walkability. The sidewalks feel like they are part of the road, the traffic is loud and congested, zoning has made me walk a long ways between point A and point B if they aren't both retail, the air quality is terrible.
I can agree with Koolhaas' fascination with the stacked section where each floor has the potential to be a new site. I do genuinely think that this strategy allows cities to occupy much less space than the sprawl that we Americans so adore. (I do too, I mean I like living in the country). But I think that how it is now just isn't working. A large part I think is the congestion on the horizontal level, not the vertical level. Vertically it's okay, you generally have public bottom floors and private floors as you go up. Makes sense. But horizontally the city is centered around the car, not the people using the sidewalks or getting from a few blocks to the next. It almost expects people to get into their cars just to drive a few blocks.
I also think that architecture needs to be more about the people who use it and the environment it's being built in rather than how great it makes a star architect look. I agree with Denise Scott-Brown's perspective that we should strive to keep reevaluating based on current and future social changes. Formal vocabularies should be studied and improved, not taken as gospel. We study a few old white guys and take their ideas as a form of truth when we should instead engage in a conversation about what is wrong with their ideas, how it can be improved, and include different voices of people from a variety of backgrounds. Ask the less fortunate how these "master plans" are benefiting them.
I also just want to point out that when you type in congested city, the first page is all car congestion.
Jenn (with two n's),
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your stance on the way we should be looking at star architects. A lot of the time, their work is so polarizing and we are taught that the idea is either good or bad based on someone else's opinion. The cool part about architecture to me is that there is no right answer. We can technically design and build whatever we want and we can take inspiration from whoever we want but when it comes down to it, everyone is different and everyone has a specific thing we are good at. Find that thing you are good at and be better than everyone else. Find that building you like so much and design it better than it originally was. there are no wrong answers, just improvements.