A Place for "Junkspace"
Written in 2002, "Junkspace", an essay by Rem Koolhaas, critiques the architecture destroying phenomenon alluded to in the title. Koolhaas goes on to define this space as universal, inefficient, and wildly disconnected from historical architecture. He proclaims it is wasteful and lacking meaningful qualities. This idea, previously mentioned as universal, is evident in many contemporary buildings and urban environments.
While I tend to agree with Koolhaas on many views, I find his identification of "junkspace" as entirely useless, alarming. I believe that this notion of space can serve a purpose in certain (and I mean specific) situations. Before I get to far, I want to say I am not insisting for a mass overthrow of architecture as we know it for the substitution of "junkspace" but, I do believe that there is more to these spaces than meets the eye.
I want to focus on shopping malls, trade fairs, hotel lobbies, and lastly, theme parks. For the first 3 of these spaces, the commonality they share that I want to talk about is the vast, open, structure driven spaces. While in many (sadly) realistic scenarios, they are filled with branding, exuberant signage, and wild, unmemorable amenities, I think that these spaces, due to their design, can provide flexible solutions to the needs of modern society. They can be used to provide temporary shelter, convenience, and entertainment. Their vast spaces (while often used for bad) can be flexible and reconfigured to accommodate for situations such as housing the homeless, food banks, medical emergency support space, and other various human-centered needs. When the pandemic, natural disasters, and other jarring tragedies strike, these spaces are the ones that, due to their flexibility, save and help real people.
Lastly, Koolhaas's despise for theme parks shocks me considering he wrote "Delirious New York", a retroactive manifesto on the rise of Manhattan, where he explicitly mentions the wonderous impact that Coney Island had as a space for architectural innovation and pure human enjoyment that served as a breeding ground for what Manhattan was to become. And also, most importantly, theme parks just plain rule.
I believe shopping malls are the most interesting to think about as time progresses and our population grows. How will these massive structures adapt and how will they be repurposed? I always found movies and shows that are about apocalypses fun to watch because in almost all of them, the characters always find themselves at some point in a mall, where its used as a hospital, fortress, and or homes for survivors.
ReplyDeleteGood points Eric, I also agree to your comment on malls. During my time in Charleston, SC Khris Middleton repurposed a mall corridor and installed basketball courts into the hallways. The mall now turned into something that felt like a large and sprawled YMCA. The feel the building brought to the space almost felt like a relic and was very fun to be in a repurposed space like that. As time processes, the reading has almost become outdated in some ways for how we view malls as a relic now, rather than something we need to destroy from the past. Interesting generational different there I'd assume.
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