Render vs Real

    Rem Koolhaas' criticism of modern architecture being like "reading a footnote and hoping it turns into a novel" is fascinating to me. Due to the "larger than life" claims and massive sweeping effects of modernism, I would have anticipated it be compared to the title of a book rather than the footnotes. The CIAM, being the initial authors of modern architecture, however, were not ignorant of the realities of city-life. Rather, they saw in it the incomplete-ness and mess, and aspired to completely wipe the slate clean with a new form of architecture that they asserted would solve and organize the "mess". Their biggest mistake, Koolhaas would assert, is not studying the mess. Rem Koolhaas in Junkspaces brings some level of dignity, or at least vitality, the the in-between, congested alleys and strip malls that make up the vast majority of our world. Seeing "reality" as worth studying rather than simply judging, Koolhaas sought to magnify the multitude of expressions and non-architectures that exist and will always exist in the junkspaces. 

    In many ways, Koolhaas' exploration of the normal or even the simply experienced is bringing the "real" - the lived - to the frontpage of design. Sitting in contrast is modern architecture - which exists as a render, selective in input, untouched by time of real hands.