Little Boxes
After reading Margaret Crawford’s “Little Boxes”, the first thing I did was listen to Malvina Reynolds’s song “Little Boxes”. Listening to the lyrics had me thinking of how accurate her perspective was on these houses and complexes that are going up all around us. A developer creating a neighborhood with townhouses usually has a unique style for the architecture for all of them so they feel like they are a part of a community, but is it really a community when all of them look the exact same? I find it funny that the definition of community is stated as “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common, ‘the scientific community’”. In this case what they have in common is the facade and layout of their “box”. Would it not be better to live in a community where everyone’s differences and styles are displayed through the architecture itself? Reynolds’s lyrics, “...and they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same” was not only a jab at the suburban homes, but also the people themselves living in these homes.
Molly, I also listened to Reynold's song. Although I gravitate towards recognizing what she was saying, and thinking heavily on The Truman Show, I also feel as if it is what is inside these "little boxes" that establishes the uniqueness of a community. People can put up this facade of what they want others to see, but when one is welcomed into a safe space of another, that's when the individuality can shine through.
ReplyDeleteMolly, I think what it comes down to is the ability to create an architecture that allows the occupant to take full agency of their external presence within their community. Without this being done though, this sense of individuality within a community could be as simple as allowing the tenant to change the exterior paint color, window frames, shutters, roof, etc. Often times, the owner of the complex is reluctant to give up that control though as they are trying to maintain some type of aesthetic.
ReplyDeleteI think you are totally right. However, our repulsion to suburbia is in large part due to the fact that we actually place creativity and aesthetics at the forefront of building design. I think that most Americans are drawn to the ease of little boxes. We have an image of a quaint family home and if we can get that quickly and cheaply, why would it matter that every one of your neighbors has the same exact one?
ReplyDelete