A matter of Control
Fouad Street, Alexandria, Egypt
In 331 BC, the architect Dinocrates of Rhodes outlined a vision in chalk and barley grains of a street that would cut through the planned city of Alexandria and serve as the main artery for movement and life. His vision was bold, the street was 5 times wider than all other streets and split the city into residential and public districts. This street would create an Alexandria that was to become the ideal city, the capital of the world. Dinocrates' vision still serves today and after 23 centuries of continual inhabitation and use - is one of the oldest streets in the world.
This permanence of Fouad street would support Habraken’s idea of permanence and strangle the modern connotation. In Habraken’s thinking, the street has formed a support system that has guided change and development for countless lives and uses. This is a perfect architecture.
This is a lesson that Habraken wants to remind us of: that the built environment is where we interact with the visions of the past. In this, ideal permanence is a framework that allows adaption and longevity. If we want to do this we have to radically redefine the program of a space and organizing elements. It almost seems like losing the program entirely and adopting a universal/ generalist mindset - which I find problematic. But that’s a story for another time.
“Change must honor what was done earlier by others and permanence must offer space for who will come later” (Habraken, Questions that will no go away)
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Habraken then introduces the crux of his argument, the idea of control. In a sense, our ability to control is how we live and navigate the built environment. Control of the environment is a self-confirming act, it affirms your identity and the identity of the environment. Can you move furniture about? Can you direct where the street goes? Can you build a building? Answering these questions - gives you a good idea of where you land in society.
I think this intuitively makes sense to us. How many times have you heard of people painting after buying a house? Chances are that changing the paint color from off-white to egg white won’t change anything, but it will confirm that you own a house now (maybe more so than a mortgage).
This is the same for projects on which I’ve worked, when I am handed a new aspect of a project to work on - I adjust things. Sometimes it's shifting petty things around and other times it becomes a new project. Oftentimes I wonder how much is exactly needed or if I simply feel the need to exert control and thereby justify my involvement. I’m not sure, but don’t tell anyone - I’m still invaluable on a team. :)
Another aspect of control that we seem to revel in is total control. Gesamtkunstwerk. We still praise the total environments of Wright, Corbusier, Mies and replicate it into our modern designs.
Built-in furniture
However, this approach effectively destroys the ownership and control of the inhabitants. The ability to populate a design with terrible art, kitschy kick-nacks, and cheap furniture are what give identity and ownership to a space- it makes it a human space. Maybe the best designs are the ones that fade back to frame the shitty Hobby Lobby print?
Fouad Street: The oldest planned, still inhabited street in the world - Round City (round-city.com)
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