Delirious "America"
'Delirious New York', written in 1978 by Rem Koolhaas, is a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan, America's first urban playground for experimental ideation in architecture. The book itself represents the radical, innovative exploration of the architecture and culture of New York City during the early 20th century. Incredibly influential within the architecture world upon release, Delirious New York's impact is still extremely prevalent today.
A main theme from the writing of Koolhaas is the "culture of congestion." He argues that skyscrapers and the formation of the dense environment that became New York City has had a lasting impact on modern architecture. In regards to densification, Koolhaas also argues the idea of "the city as a machine." This concept states that the modern city must function as a machine in order to meet, please, and exceed the needs of the its inhabitants. This metaphor still inspires designers today to think of buildings as more than just physical structures, but as dynamic, functional systems that can satisfy its inhabitants, like a city must.
Hey Eric, I appreciated that you wrote about the topic of the city as a machine! I think it's a really interesting idea Koolhaas was talking about and how similar it is to Le Corb's theory that the house is a machine for living. While it's important to think about your design as it relates to its context and surrounding culture, thus influencing its functional system, can design really be satisfactory to its users?
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