Love is a Battlefield
"The city is a battlefield" - David Franco
When analyzing the consequences, outcomes, and results of politics within architecture and the city, it is hard to disagree with this statement. It was mentioned multiple times throughout this past week's lecture and has become something I strongly agree with. The term "battlefield," can represent a wide variety of meanings ranging from literal to conceptual. In a physical sense, protests and wars were at one point commonly fought within the city. In Paris and other prominent locations, the cityscapes have been forever changed through combat and destruction. These dense, urban environments house a large portion of the population creating spaces for turbulence.
In a theoretical sense, urban environments create space for collaboration, good or bad, that can ignite a passion in people. These spaces can become "warzones" where people stand up for what they believe in. The density within cities provide an audience for these movements to gain traction.
Eric, I agree with you 100%. I think what also attracts these conflicts in cities is the ability to gain traction, especially through media outlets that are headquartered there. The large populations that cities hold also create more diversity, possibly causing more differences and conflicts to occur.
ReplyDeleteI'm solely here for the title. But I do agree with both you and Erin. I believe that wars historically began in more populated places as a strategy to gain whatever advantages the city or people have. Now this tactic has evolved into an effort to impact the infrastructure of these cities in the hope to make changes and improvements faster.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like everyone can agree that density = attention. Whether the attention is for political use or not, the built environment attracts crowds which in turn densifies that area and sets the stage for change. It is hard to dictate the actions of that population and that is why power and leaderships use populated areas to influence the surrounding because if the mass is changed, then others will fall in line.
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