Can We Prevent the Accumulation of Junkspace?

Rem Koolhaas defines junkspace as “what remains after modernization has run its course, or, more precisely, what coagulates while modernization is in progress, its fallout.” Junkspace appears in our world today in the form of abandoned shopping malls, airports, nightclubs, and casinos. Koolhaas notes that “we do not leave pyramids,” meaning that the remnants of our past architecture are not celebrated monuments. Though we may study how well a building performed or the public’s reaction to the architecture, many of our buildings now sit abandoned and surrounded by a sea of pavement that nobody uses. Additionally, most of our old buildings that are not kept for historical purposes are demolished after a fairly short lifetime. At the time of their design, many junkspaces were crammed with so much program that they could almost be operated twenty-four hours a day. Since many of these spaces were designed to be such flexible spaces, why then have many of them become obsolete? Architects are beginning to retrofit many shopping centers and other junk spaces so that they can once again be given back as public space instead of sitting as an eyesore among the rest of our built environment. In the future, how can we design spaces that the public demands while also anticipating the ever-changing needs of what people will demand of their public spaces in the future?

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