Enthusiasm Toward the Future
Architects in
the early 1900s were enthusiastic by the prospect of an urban future where
there would be multi-level traffic of cars, rails, pedestrians, sky bridges
that cut through skyscraper buildings, etc. We can see this in the work of
Moses King or William R. Leigh for example.
The readings on
"'Life in the Metropolis' or 'The Culture of Congestion'" by Rem
Koolhaas and "MIT - Made in Tokyo" by Atelier Bow-Wow somehow remind
me of the images above. But different from the architects in the early 1900s,
Koolhaas and Atelier Bow-Wow's approaches toward the idea of congestion is more
appropriate for the space, place, and time in which the architecture is
created. I am especially interested in the way the Japanese urban condition
took shape and became what it is. The city itself grew and continues to grow
organically in filling up every corner of a city in response to their
restricted land size. Perhaps, not in the same magnitude, but the architecture
in Japan has some characteristics related to these fictional works in the early
1900s. Things stack on top or tuck under wherever the space allows.
Seemingly not
related, but this week's topic on congestion also reminds me of the images of cities
with houses stacked on top of each other like in many in Sci-fi movies that
portray a city of the future. Like the movie “Ready Player One.” There, the
city is portrayed in the image of skyscrapers made of individual units that
look like shipping container. There, people often occupy their time in a game
environment.
The idea of
living in a visual environment is no longer so far fetch. Mark Zuckerberg
presented to the world the Metaverse, where people can live in their dream home
through the visual reality Oculus goggle. The feature of having people creating
and customizing their own visual space is yet available but will be out in the
near future. Zuckerberg imagines this Metaverse to be a world where people go
to work, go shopping, hang out with friends, play games, etc. Or even going to
converts in Metaverse. A couple of musicians had already done so during the
course of the pandemic. To me, it’s like imagining the future full of COVID and
people are stuck at home. Metaverse would be a much more enjoyable place to
work in, hang out with friends, face-timing with family, etc. However, come
back to the position of being an architect, or in my case, a student of
architecture, what does it mean to the future of architecture both in the
visual Metaverse and reality? Where would this take the field of architecture?
At the same
time, what would the gap between the architecture of one’s dream (a.k.a inside
Metaverse) and the architecture of the real world look like? If I can build a
fantasy world inside my Metaverse, how would I feel returning to the reality of
me working on an endless multi-axial treadmill in a tiny cramp space?
I’m ending with
these questions for now because I’m still intrigued and contemplating this
concept. But if you’re interested and have 1 hour 17 minutes and 26 seconds to
spare for experiencing how it would be like in a Metaverse with Mark Zuckerberg,
check it out in the link below.
Hi Tuyen,
ReplyDeleteI loved the stream of thought here, so I will respond in kind with my own.
I particularly enjoyed the comments on Ready Player One, where there is a huge discrepancy between the character of the virtual world in the movie and the book. Because of this, I was very upset with the film. In the book, the main character is obese, unkempt, depressed, and completely overwhelmed by the conditions of poverty. His only liberation from this is the virtual world he can step into every day, with many moments of internal dialogue populated with his embarrassment or discomfort in the knowledge of his physical self. At one point in the book, he doesn't leave his house for a whole year and is found in particularly poor condition. This makes thoughts of Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to make this a reality highly distressing. Considering how much I'm staring at a screen for work or school, maybe we need solutions that step us away from this reality.
Going back into the world of architecture, is congestion on this level of futuristic sci-fi stories representative of solutions, or just adaptation in a world that has been squandered of much of its natural resources, like in Ready Player One? I love what's happening in Tokyo when considering store-fronts primarily because it allows for unique conditions of space; this can lead to a diversity of programs and hopefully greater pedestrian engagement. However, when considering living conditions, there's a surge in popularity over what they're calling micro-apartments. Of course, we know congestion is bad when it starts driving up the cost of living, but are we seeing micro-apartments or these capsules hotels as solutions to a problem or rather an outcome of one? At what sqft does space become unlivable or unusable? Should we always think to applaud these efforts or see it as an unfortunate result of a worse problem?