BUBBLE (DIAGRAM) ARCHITECTURE

“Continuity is the essence of Junkspace; it exploits any invention that enables expansion, deploys the infrastructure of seamlessness: escalator, air-conditioning, sprinkler, fire shutter, hot-air curtain… it is always interior, so extensive that you rarely perceive limits; it promotes disorientation by any means (mirror, polish, echo)… Junkspace is sealed, held together not by structure but by skin, like a BUBBLE. Gravity has remained constant, resisted by the same arsenal since the beginning of time; but air-conditioning—invisible medium, therefore unnoticed—has truly revolutionized architecture.”

 

               The way that I see Junkspace, it is essentially a bubble diagram turned into architecture. We take convenience and comfort and throw programs together and call it a ‘megastructure’ hoping nobody would notice the simple architecture that crams all programmatic elements together. In my mind, the architects that are creating these spaces are taking a site, figuring out program that is needed, throwing it into a bubble diagram, making it 3d and then slapping some type of architectural stair into it. Even though these massive structures are somewhat of an eye sore and usually are accompanied by a giant asphalt parking lot surrounding them, we all use them and aren’t mad about the convenience that they provide to us. These are the places where people gather when its cold, rainy, too hot, etc because of the central heating and air that they provide, the indoor corridors, and the escalators and elevators that are provided. These places are accessible to all and have the additional comfort with the protection from the outside elements.

 

“If space-junk is the human debris that litters the universe, junk-space is the residue mankind leaves on the planet. The built… product of modernization is not modern architecture, but junkspace. Junkspace is what remains after modernization has run its course or, more precisely, what coagulates while modernization is in progress, its fallout.”

 

               Is the fallout from not knowing how to articulate architecture in an appealing manner (exterior) that syncs all programs, accessibility, and comfort that these megastructures provide? I think that trying to create something groundbreaking and becoming a starchitect created junkspace.