While I look at buzzing cities and fairytale or rather sci-fi kinda eruption of almost impossible concepts taking shapes in form of buildings, my first reaction is always awe. Awe not of fantasy but awe smothered with jolt. You will wonder why? I am always surprised at how these things are missing the human element, in consideration, in their reaction or even how they will adapt to such a built atmosphere. Do we keep them in mind as end user or it's more of a monumental and expensive experimentation by architects?
So, when I stumbled on this article this morning, I thought I would express my (long stashed) sentiments on larger than life urbanization. Some quotes from the article:
"Dubai, which lays claim to some of the world's most expensive private islands, the tallest building and soon the largest theme park, has been derided as an urban tomb where the rich live walled off from the poor migrant workers who serve them."
"Climbing to the top of one of Holl's towers, I looked out through a haze of smog at the acres of luxury-housing towers that surround his own, the kind of alienating subdivisions that are so often cited as a symptom of the city's unbridled, dehumanizing development."
"But is site specificity enough? "The amount of building becomes obscene without a blueprint," Koolhaas said. "Each time you ask yourself, Do you have the right to do this much work on this scale if you don't have an opinion about what the world should be like? We really feel that. But is there time for a manifesto? I don't know."
Not to belittle the magnificent craft (backed by science) by planners, developers and architects, but the question is, is the purpose and end user kept in mind? How they react to scale, new materials, gargantuan spaces, complex transitions in buildings or environment? Has the research indicated that people are adept to adapt the changes quickly? Have we given a sincere thought on how we would avoid creating socio-economic classes due to this? Or is equality a privileged concept for comforting discussions only?
So, when I stumbled on this article this morning, I thought I would express my (long stashed) sentiments on larger than life urbanization. Some quotes from the article:
"Dubai, which lays claim to some of the world's most expensive private islands, the tallest building and soon the largest theme park, has been derided as an urban tomb where the rich live walled off from the poor migrant workers who serve them."
"Climbing to the top of one of Holl's towers, I looked out through a haze of smog at the acres of luxury-housing towers that surround his own, the kind of alienating subdivisions that are so often cited as a symptom of the city's unbridled, dehumanizing development."
"But is site specificity enough? "The amount of building becomes obscene without a blueprint," Koolhaas said. "Each time you ask yourself, Do you have the right to do this much work on this scale if you don't have an opinion about what the world should be like? We really feel that. But is there time for a manifesto? I don't know."
Not to belittle the magnificent craft (backed by science) by planners, developers and architects, but the question is, is the purpose and end user kept in mind? How they react to scale, new materials, gargantuan spaces, complex transitions in buildings or environment? Has the research indicated that people are adept to adapt the changes quickly? Have we given a sincere thought on how we would avoid creating socio-economic classes due to this? Or is equality a privileged concept for comforting discussions only?
2 comments:
Men have always treated cities as monuments of greatness and achievement. I don't believe these are constructed with social equality or development in mind.
Probably. But this intention simply denies the human presence from the picture, which ultimately are supposed to be the end users.
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