Where has culture gone?
In our lecture this week we talked about the effects universalization has on the culture of different countries around the world; Paul Ricoeur believes that universalization may advance mankind but destroys traditional cultures and the creative nucleus. Once the world is universalized what happens to our traditions and cultures that were unique to a certain place. How would we be able to get back to a place of individualization once the world is universalized? This brings us to Kenneth Frampton and his point about universal civilization vs local culture. He states that our spaces are becoming the same as the years go on. There are no unique features of any downtown designs, they all look the same. Why would we all be designing the same layouts for our cities? Shouldn’t they be uniquely catered to the geography, the landscape, and the needs of the people who live in them?
I think the concept that our architecture is slowly becoming universalized is an interesting one. A lot of what we've learned about history of cultures and cavillations has been through finding remains and ruins of old and ancient architecture. This architecture tells a story about the people that experienced it. We're able to catch a glimpse into the way they might have lived, and what values they held. When a historian in the distant future finds one of our many copy and paste shopping malls, I wonder if he'll be able to discern anything useful about our culture from the way we've designed them.
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