ally reeves writes:
Very exciting to see the convergent ideas and language being tossed out.
Robin I am a fan of your paragraph:
“As the economy tanks and assurances of continual growth become less and less convincing, change seems imminent. Many people are coming to terms with the prospect of a marked decline in our collective ability to consume and the imperative to make do with what we have. What better moment to rethink the basics of how and where we live, what exactly defines our quality of life and what resources we draw on to sustain ourselves? In anticipation of a future in which individuals and communities play a much more active role in defining our living conditions, we hope to begin a conversation and share the possibilities explored through our experimentation.”
and carolyn I am excited by your milton friedman quote:
“only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change. And when the crisis occurs, the change depends on the ideas that are lying around.” And then he goes on to say, “That, I believe, is our basic function: to keep the ideas ready until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” So I think it’s really important for people to look at the ideas that are lying around.”
Carolyn your images and description of experiencing the space really brings this conversation into reality:
the reality of having a space, having a chance to reach a bunch of people and guide them through the space or in this case- help them through the space?
I really liked robin’s suggestion of thinking of a way to expand the use of the shaft space, or at least propose to expand physically or conceptually. Maybe it was the images of the tenement and sweat shops. Or maybe it is the images and info from the links I’m about to describe but I am feeling very strongly about making things that are functional structures that expand and utilize extra space or resources in regards to architecture, both in the New Museum and in our own cities.
Here’s a structure I like in the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum for quick reference:
Kids crawl up 30 ft high space that’s about 2.5 ft. wide, literally scaling a space the size of most walls. There are enough shelves of different heights in this structure that you see kids climb up and hang out in some of the less heavily trafficked spaces.
After hearing Carolyn’s description of the difficulty of moving through the shaft space, I find myself wanting to solve that problem. can there be different bridges that lead up and over some crowds, offering different views, or pathways to those places we are describing making in other cities: nap spaces, work spaces, etc.
I keep thinking of ant farms too- the shaft space is like a human ant farm.
Carolyn- you asked of robin- why these activities?( re: sleeping, napping, working, etc.) I like the breadth of these activities because they range from important to minor. That is what’s wanted out of a space a person owns or has claimed- freedom to do both important and unimportant things. I think these activities also read as a list which implies there’s more out there that isn’t listed.
Here are several articles of interest. Right now is a really good time to be reading BLDGBLOG in compliment to thinking about architectural space. It’s where I’m pulling these links from. The author is poetic and insightful and he’s writing about the architecture of decline that’s facing many urban spaces. ( BTW enjoyed the pits article very much).
These articles are about:
A man living a parasitic lifestyle: he lives and works in a crane atop the new world’s tallest building being constructed in Dubai. People say he never comes down. He is somewhat of a John Henry character-
his work is his life, is his home.
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/infrastructural-domesticity.html
A story of a man and friends who had made a home in drawbridge. The room shifted upright without warning, changing the man’s living space around without notice. This happened in Chicago.
http://archidose.blogspot.com/2004/12/file-under-amazing.html
A link to a clip from an Australian paper suggesting that empty pools be converted into “granny flats”, sunken houses that are very energy efficient and low visual impact to landscapes.
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/down-under.html
and beautiful images from Belgian photographer Filip Dujardin who makes images of unexpected buildings – that is, he “combines photographs of parts of buildings into new, fictional, architectonic structures,”. These buldings seem of no time and everytime. Their entrances are hidden. They fit in and…umm…they don’t?
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/resampled-space.html
Last response is to the suggestion that structures “go unnoticed” or “unquestioned”. I really like that you keyed in on this as a “but why?”, Carolyn. I think this came out of conversation Robin and I were having about what long-lasting architecture achieves. In our case, and in the case of people who are struggling in all sorts of situations there is a reason why we struggle in the first place: we lack resources others have them. We have some opportunities to tap them, while other things are unattainable. The greater the disparity between the person and the resource the greater the effort or complexity of the method acquired to attain it. There are without a doubt places that we could never justify our presence in- we could not rent or buy or “art project” our way into some territories. In these places we sneak and disguise ourselves to get in. Sneaking and hiding are behavior for spaces we aren’t allowed in for one reason or another.
Th other option “going unquestioned” as opposed to “unnoticed” is what I think much of what cities are made up of. Most architecture is so monolithic is belittles the idea of ever being influenced by us. In this way architecture can impose.That might be the part of “going unquestioned” that I have a problem with. I think we want to use it in the “going unquestioned b/c it’s so darn useful or right for this place” kind of way.
Depending on what an artist wants to get out of going unquestioned he/she could be creating a useful business, making something beautiful that is welcomed into a space where it is, or making something fun that people want around. I’ve been thinking of making a hideout that’s either really undercover, or really well known. it will get torn down when someone finds it and is mad a secret place made it past their awareness, OR so many people will love it that it will be protected by them, or become so legitimate that it’s welcomed to stay as a happy addition to the list of fun things to do in some park.
Keep the ideas flowin’
