In the previous post (Where's my fur and am I a racist), I pointed out that something was missing. Something about infrastructure, its role in culture and how it can affect people. Something profound which goes beyond simple divisions and privacy. This woman perhaps answers that question, or at least puts a very big solid step in the right direction.
"Many might be tempted to see religion as the cause of the kind of conflict in which we have been embroiled. On the contrary. When religions were truly embraced within communities, it was religion that radiated affection, respect and compassion between them. And each community could establish its identity through harmonious architecture that assured it of its existence and established its sttled place. Fear that one's identity is threatened leads to anger and hatred, and concrete barracks stimulate that fear, since they leave the inhabitant to his own devices, providing no shared place to belong to, but saying, on the contrary, you tell me what and with whom you are.
... The idea that architecture exists to serve people, and that it should grow in response to their living needs, seems to have been agandoned even in the West. Instead we have a new conception of the architect as someone who controls the future, and someone who has the right to herd people into zones and barracks, regardless of their wishes, and without taking any responsibility fo teh terrible social consequences. "
From The Battle for Home by Marwa Al-Sabouni. © 2016. Reprinted by kind permission of Thames & Hudson Ltd, London.
Simultaneous to all that I observed in Portland and Eugene with regard to congregation and separation of homeless populations, gentrification was a big issue in Portland and I did demolition frequently for work.
My friend who was a welder for 30 years used to draw my attention to all the sculptures atop of old Portland buildings. He'd tell me how they had chiseled the stones for the old churches where they stood today and how rather than screwing bolts into bridges they'd weld the stud on site and toss it up to one another red hot with the use of bags (he said this made it stronger).
I had demolished out historical buildings made with stone pulled from ships from china, bricks, naturally grown wood, things like 150 year old wells, cast iron appliances, magnetic instead of stainless steele, Shang-hi tunnels (these were actually already closed off long ago, but they are or were part of at least a couple of buildings I've worked on), and an overall sense of culture. Then I’ve seen what gets constructed in their place; the wells get filled, the stone replaced with quick-dry concrete mix, bricks replaced with fiberglass, sheet rock, and flimsy aluminum studs, the wood is engineered rather than natural (cut up and glued together), the flooring is some plastic composite snap on wood, and plastic membrane I believe is used to compensate for the fact that all these materials don’t withstand the rain well. As for the sculptures which exist atop all older Portland buildings, they are nowhere to be found on the new ones.
Attention is drawn to the functionality of appliances and drawn away from the fact that the materials lack quality and character; it is all made in china crap. In light of Marwa's arguments, I think real style, quality, and character are going to bring more to my life than the most up to date lighting feature or a more powerful microwave.
As for the homes I've demo'd much the same can be said; older portland homes have unique designs, random sub-levels and mysterious cubby holes, lots of natural grown wood and brick. It all gets replaced with cookie cutter designs, and quick/ cheap material and appliances. We are literally gluing homes together nowadays [engineered wood], even the nice ones - especially the nice onces actually.
Though science cannot yet establish (but is currently making progress with the BRAIN intiative) a A-B-C-D causal relationship between organisms and their environment, it is not irrational to establish an A-D relationship. It has observability and re-productibility. From here, an idea in science is judged by how well it describes what is observed, thus B-C are not strictly required to establish a causal chain, all that is required is to observe what is obvious; Portland changed. People changed, culture changed, crime rates changed, etc..
... The idea that architecture exists to serve people, and that it should grow in response to their living needs, seems to have been agandoned even in the West. Instead we have a new conception of the architect as someone who controls the future, and someone who has the right to herd people into zones and barracks, regardless of their wishes, and without taking any responsibility fo teh terrible social consequences. "
From The Battle for Home by Marwa Al-Sabouni. © 2016. Reprinted by kind permission of Thames & Hudson Ltd, London.
Simultaneous to all that I observed in Portland and Eugene with regard to congregation and separation of homeless populations, gentrification was a big issue in Portland and I did demolition frequently for work.
My friend who was a welder for 30 years used to draw my attention to all the sculptures atop of old Portland buildings. He'd tell me how they had chiseled the stones for the old churches where they stood today and how rather than screwing bolts into bridges they'd weld the stud on site and toss it up to one another red hot with the use of bags (he said this made it stronger).
I had demolished out historical buildings made with stone pulled from ships from china, bricks, naturally grown wood, things like 150 year old wells, cast iron appliances, magnetic instead of stainless steele, Shang-hi tunnels (these were actually already closed off long ago, but they are or were part of at least a couple of buildings I've worked on), and an overall sense of culture. Then I’ve seen what gets constructed in their place; the wells get filled, the stone replaced with quick-dry concrete mix, bricks replaced with fiberglass, sheet rock, and flimsy aluminum studs, the wood is engineered rather than natural (cut up and glued together), the flooring is some plastic composite snap on wood, and plastic membrane I believe is used to compensate for the fact that all these materials don’t withstand the rain well. As for the sculptures which exist atop all older Portland buildings, they are nowhere to be found on the new ones.
Attention is drawn to the functionality of appliances and drawn away from the fact that the materials lack quality and character; it is all made in china crap. In light of Marwa's arguments, I think real style, quality, and character are going to bring more to my life than the most up to date lighting feature or a more powerful microwave.
As for the homes I've demo'd much the same can be said; older portland homes have unique designs, random sub-levels and mysterious cubby holes, lots of natural grown wood and brick. It all gets replaced with cookie cutter designs, and quick/ cheap material and appliances. We are literally gluing homes together nowadays [engineered wood], even the nice ones - especially the nice onces actually.
Though science cannot yet establish (but is currently making progress with the BRAIN intiative) a A-B-C-D causal relationship between organisms and their environment, it is not irrational to establish an A-D relationship. It has observability and re-productibility. From here, an idea in science is judged by how well it describes what is observed, thus B-C are not strictly required to establish a causal chain, all that is required is to observe what is obvious; Portland changed. People changed, culture changed, crime rates changed, etc..
Infrastructural shifts in germany before ww11: precursors to war?
The following are excerpts from the wikipedia page on Bauhaus :
commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught.[1]
.......
The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education.[2] The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.[3]
..............
However, the most important influence on Bauhaus was modernism, a cultural movement whose origins lay as early as the 1880s, and which had already made its presence felt in Germany before the World War, despite the prevailing conservatism. The design innovations commonly associated with Gropius and the Bauhaus—the radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass-production was reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit—were already partly developed in Germany before the Bauhaus was founded.
....... and last but not least; the modern connection to the second largest city in Israel;
The White City of Tel Aviv (Hebrew: העיר הלבנה, Ha-Ir HaLevana) refers to a collection of over 4,000 Bauhaus or International style buildings built in Tel Aviv from the 1930s by German Jewish architects who emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine after the rise of the Nazis. Tel Aviv has the largest number of buildings in this style of any city in the world.
commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught.[1]
.......
The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education.[2] The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.[3]
..............
However, the most important influence on Bauhaus was modernism, a cultural movement whose origins lay as early as the 1880s, and which had already made its presence felt in Germany before the World War, despite the prevailing conservatism. The design innovations commonly associated with Gropius and the Bauhaus—the radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass-production was reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit—were already partly developed in Germany before the Bauhaus was founded.
....... and last but not least; the modern connection to the second largest city in Israel;
The White City of Tel Aviv (Hebrew: העיר הלבנה, Ha-Ir HaLevana) refers to a collection of over 4,000 Bauhaus or International style buildings built in Tel Aviv from the 1930s by German Jewish architects who emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine after the rise of the Nazis. Tel Aviv has the largest number of buildings in this style of any city in the world.
