The Eclectic Alliance

Jane Jacob and Christopher Alexander had quite revolutionary views of the city, similar to the new urbanism movement that is developing more momentum now. In this Planteizen article (here on planetizen) the link is discussed between the social views and ideals of 3 groups are discussed:
*western films depicting the urban hero
*the ideals of Jane Jacobs in the 60's
*and New Urbanists in the turn of the millenia.

I point out that there are other groups which perform active roles that run parrallel and conplimentary to Jane Jocobs' and New Urbanist thought. The KravMaga movement, and some other martial arts movements through history have arisen out of a desire for social justice, peaceful streets and safe neighbourhods. Many other sub-cultural cliches also have extremely open and interactive adgenda's despite the negative stereotypes which they so often seem to attract.

Jane Jacobs', Christopher Alexander, New Urbanists, Martial Artists and Fringe-Sub-Cultural Groups make a Beautiful Eclectic Alliance.

While you are there, be sure to read many of the other interesting articles on Planetizen. I recommend subscribing to their newsletters :)

Recycled Public Space Architecture

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/ruins-of-electric-train-turned-into-terribly-cool-amusement-park-in-lima-photos.php?campaign=th_rss#ch01

CAVE CLAN EXPOSITION 2009

Finally! After 3 years waiting for the call... I was finally able to meet the Cave Clan. We met at a non-descript pub and then proceeded to explore 3 venues; Barfut's bat cave, The Lake and Pink House.

I first became interested in the CaveClan in 2006 whilst studying the effects situationalism could possibly have on architectural iterations in an attempt to more fully engage people with their surrounding built environment... I began to explore 'topside' (above ground), photographing back alleys, fireescapes and rooftops in the Brisbane CBD. Topside urban exploration, although if unenclosed is somewhat less clandestine, is also notably safer than urban spurlunking and draining, so I had opted to wait for a 'cave clan' expo before I started out on my own.

Barfut's Bat Cave started out below a trainline and contained a mix of both concrete, brick and blasted rock tunnels, exiting with a magnificent view of Brisbane. There were Bat's, and Roaches and Rats, and 8-bit music blarring out of a ghetto blaster :) It was amazing seeing the layers and weathering caused by stormwater continually moving over the surfaces, beneath restaurants whose smells wafted down to us, and beneath roads, whose traffic we heard, and past other bends in the tunnels, whose breeze we felt gratefully, being blessed with a good draft the entire journey.

The Lake began with a decent through a manhole and we walked through mostly concrete tunnel. We passed through an open air vent/overflow which provided a nice rest spot, the water below us bright red with oxidization. We then passed further along, coming to a large expansion chamber of Brick. The beautiful brick arches were somewhat spoilt by graffiti, consisting of some relics from the 80's punk movement, but many others more recent. Our journey was stopped prematurely by a high tide as we came to a junction, so we returned via a known manhole.

Our final exploration was of what is known as the 'Pink House'. The Pink House was absolutely filled with Graffiti and looked like it was under renovation. Evidence existed that it was still under occupation by squatters, but the overall effect was beautiful in the evening light. Not much remained of it's original fitout save for an old kitchen hood and some wiring. So we shortly left to rest and talk about what it is that makes the cave clan.

In our discussions about the 'dis'-organisation that is the cave clan, certain characteristics that define the brisbane Clan were discussed. The need for subtelty was important. Prime motivations for the effort it takes to remain below the radar include both avoiding the wrong type of people in attendance and avoiding the over-exuberant attentions of too-well-meaning-public-servants or Howard-era-fridge-magnet-waving-terrorist-hotline-regulars.

It is evident through the efforts taken to avoid collective attention, that the Cave Clan exists for the enjoyment of these forgotten urban spaces as they exist, in the rough. The entire time in attendance there was the subtle feeling of being under observation from within the group. They have been approached before by Writers seeking new places for their work, and other various characters. The Cave Clan appears to take pains to avoid these characters in order to protect both the integrity of their dis-orginaisation as will as the integrity of the drains and forgotten places for future generations of Urban Explorers. We spoke as well for the need for dis-orginizations to recruit new members and talent. There needs to be a future in all endeavours or else they become redundant and stagnant. In this respect the Cave Clan is no different. It requires it's participants to seek out new places of interest and bring them back to the group for their shared benefit.

Most of all... dis-organisations need to be enjoyable and without burden. Too much time spent on management (and worse still; micro-management) not only defeats the purpose of participants taking personal intiative in the group and contributing, but also removes the attraction for those that are committed to enjoying their clandestine activities. It needs to flow.

Beureucratic responses to The Cave Clan have been varied in the past. At one point senior members of the group were approached by Governments Agencies to provide information on potentially sensitive targets after 911. Then later was recommended for inquest because of it's apparent 'counter-culture' shadowy characters after the accidental drownings of two graffiti writer's in a popular drain named "Fortress" at sydney.

Finally: here is a link to the TED talk video of Miru Kim who does self-portraits in forgotten corners of the urban organism that is our forgotten places.

And here is a link to one of Brisbane's premiere' urban explorer's WEBSITE which is a Massive Mostache beyond Awesome.

To Build A Castle

A quote from Vladimir Bukovsky's 1977 auto-biographical account of Krushev's Russia and the The Krushev Thaw and his sufferance under the iron curtain for basic human-rights entitled; To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter. (Viking Press NY, 1979)

A people, nation, class, party, or simply crowd cannot go
beyond a certain limit in a crisis: the instinct of self preservation proves too
strong. They can sacrifice a part in the hope of saving the rest, they can break
up into smaller groups and seek salvation that way. But this is their
downfall.
To be alone is an enormous responsibility. With his back
to the wall a man understands: "I am th people, I am the nation, I am the class,
and there is nothing at all." He cannot sacrifice part of himself, cannot split
himself up or divide into parts and still live. There is nowhere for him to
retreat to, and the instinct of self-preservation drives him to extremes - he
prefers physical death to spiritual death.
And an astonishing thing happens. In fighting to preserve
his integrity he is simultaneously fighting for his people, his class, his
party. It is such individuals who win the right for their comminuties to live -
even, perhaps, if they are not thingking of it at the time.
"Why should I do it?" asks each man in the crowd. "I can
do nothing alone"
And they are all lost.
"If I don't do it, who will?" asks the man with his back
to the wall.
And everyone is saved.
That is how man begins building his
castle.

Would Cedric Price be happier in a sandpit?

The continued blurring of our ephemeral and physical boundaries continues to grey as the speed of technic development exponentially increases and disperses. It is when exposed to news of new developments we find ourselves either decrying the loss of conservative superlatives and resisting inevitable change, our we are found enraptured by the promises of brighter futures, empowerment, efficiencies and new liberties.

There have been some very interesting and powerful projects recently, two of which have come from Carlo Ratti and the Senseable City Lab of MIT which use new technic media to further merge the ephemeral and physical in order to create new integrated environments.

The first is the Copenhagen Wheel by MIT. MIT students and Ratti have researched and developed a beautiful sexy product which could see very practical application within the public realm by providing both an attractive, marketable product to the public in the form of an auxiliary power source for cyclists (which constitutes an overwhelming percentage of Copenhagen's transport modes), as well as a research/community tool through the information gathering capabilities of inbuilt technologies.

The second project is what has been termed "The Cloud" and was presented by Carlo Ratti. Carlo Ratti's focus as Director of MIT's Senseable City Lab appears to have been in the realm of representation and information gathering of spatial-temporal data (as can be seen in his list of patents here). It forms a proposal for the Mayor's Landmark Precinct for the upcoming London 2012 Olympics.

The Cloud serves multiple purposes; as screen, as viewing platform, as place, and as technic innovation and physcial/ephemeral blur. Perhaps we can add gimick to the list of diasporic functions... an important function for a mayor nearing elections no doubt. But I am showing my cinisicm again, I digress. Ratti took inspiration from the olympic torch, Diller+Scoffidio's Blur project, and the Eiffel Tower, and has worked with both his Senseable City innovators and Arup Engineer's.

During the panel discussion of Ratti's Cloud proposal, the interesting point was made by Prof John Frazer (QUT's head of the School of Design) that the precinct due to be occupied by Ratti's Cloud was indeed close to the the old site used by Cedric Price for his Fun Palace proposal (1962). Price's Fun Palace claimed as it's tenants the provision of truly public space which empowered the community through both political and architectural means, responsive to the needs of the community.

A similar proposal was Magnet (1994), where a series of temporary bridges and viewing platforms enabled new social and spatial experiences of the city.

But in the words of Cedric Price; "technology is the answer, but what is the problem?" I seem to burden these technic enhanced ephemeral/physcial optimisations with my own prime agenda; which i guess today could be summed up in the objective: "the empowerment of "open source" communities". Perhaps this is a reflection of my own personal agenda, but regardless... in response this question, I find that technology has definite gaps in it's answer.

"technology is the answer... but what is the
problem?"

The Copenhagen Wheel provides a technic answer to the question for improved cyclist experience, and the need for optimisation of current transport modes through more accurate research methods.

The Cloud, however, seems to provide little in the way of solution to problem. Perhaps this is inherint in it's politically motivated commissioning (Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, wanting the most impressive building to stand in front of as it is opened in the lead up to an election no doubt), but still... it poses to me the question; "when does the blurring and technic enhancement of architecture move beyond useful to become mere gimick.

We are kidding ourselves if anyone, like me, thought for a moment that technology can solve my interpretation of the problem; the same problems of community emancipation that Constant designed for, and that various sub-cultures have fought for again and again, their expression of community.

"Christopher,..." I hear you all whisper; "...gimicks sell architecture! Shutup before we loose our commissions!".
And sure, you're right for a lot of people. But I don't like to separate my needs for answers from architecture. And no one does architecture for the money or so I am told by those well off and impoverished alike.

We can see how the very absence of technology greatly empowers sub-cultures for community expression. The very campus containing the SenseAble City Lab used to house an old dilapidated timber radar research facility that was built during the second world war. After it's military occupation was redundant, it was appropriated by many students and modified daily to suit the use of inhabitants. There was no programmed constraints where the architecture disallowed the workflow, expression or community utility of the occupants. If the architecture got in the way, it was simply removed... knocked down or modified by the industries MIT students so that it did work. And in the hearts of generations of students, that old building was the most prescious piece of academic and community infrastucture. *

"Christopher..." I hear you whisper again... "but you are proposing that the best architecture is that which we care less about.. and yet love the most..."
Well, perhaps I am.. and this conflagrated conclusion seems the most linear and logical in the view of this argument, yet it appears to be the most unjustifiable economic logic (if the desires of a buildings occupants were to be harnessed to 'commodify architecture'). Perhaps it is my saving grace that I believe architecture to go beyond being "commodity".

So why do we buy a big mac meal when we only want fries?

"technology is the answer... but what is the problem?"

What is the problem that this technology exists for?


*refer the text "How Buildings Grow" by Stewart Brand. In it he describes numeruos examples of the same sentiment as well as this particular example; the MIT timber radar building.

Friendly Foe Scenarios

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it. A nice innocent young girl boarded the peak hour train to the city from Northgate station, bearing this inconspicuous public service announcement on behalf of our beloved Queensland Rail

It's nice to know that you are safe...
seriously... who is going to take the time to purchase a bottle of water from the Northgate kiosk before engaging in an act of
a) graffiti; or
b) violent assault
goodness knows that some of these tasks can be dehydrating....
"thank goodness I purchased this refreshing beverage... running from the security contractors can be hard work"...

It's not even grammatically correct.

Is this what happens when we privatise our public infastructure?
What a waste of money.
That is all.

Thoughts on the Postmodernism of Jerde

I recently had a chat with a friend when canvassing topics for an essay on postmodernism in design. My thoughts led me to Jerde, and so for my own benifit, and anyone who cares to hear it... I thought I would post my thoughts here for all to absorb or critique or both.

To get to postmodernism I thought that I had to first address it's context as it followed from a Romantic period and then Modernism. The decision to use Jerde as an icon of postmodernism is based upon his dominance of the retail architecture market in the US. In this fashion, both the art movements during and preceeding postmodernism can be clarified against the political and economic developments (evident in trade and commerce) which occured during the same period of time. This will lead to a comprehensive insight into the context and character of the postmodernism of Jerde, and assist in the identification of postmodern characteristics in the creative outputs of others.

You can track romanticism and modernism through consumer culture and cultural imperialism over the last 200 years. Romaniticism and the ethnographic diversification of commodities occured significantly in the 19 and 20th centuries (refer the British Empire in India and China) due to imperial expansion.
As two World Wars ravaged the globe, the old Imperial Nationalist sentiments began to fade, grow guilty, and they began to relinquish their protectorates and colonies back to the people.
Modernism came with the adjustments needed to accomodate homogenity of political correctness removed from the once burgeoning reliance on ethnographic cultural commodies. It also accomodated the slow down of the industrial revolution and the developments of the technlogical age of new homogenous products of international (and politically/ethnically neutral) standard.

Modernism itself had to split into various tertiary camps to cope with the melee of dichotomy it found itself wading through; once that the vanguard of Imperial Nationalism and assosciated decrees of 'superior creative endeavour' were removed. The world was suddenly a smaller place with no sense of proprietary or 'standard'.

Then... after a few decades of modernism striving to find a new, ethically and politically neutral pure standard which could save the world from it's differences and woes (refer internationalism and the veiled internationalism farce that was old regionalism), Postmodernism poked it;s head into the mix and decided to cause some havoc.

Enter Jerde.
Jerde's postmodern retail architecture is almost a bridge between modernism and the romanticism of forgotten imperialist ethnic commodification. Jerde is (in my opinion) unafraid to recourse to the commodofied ethnographic pallette of the cultural imperialist romanticism era, whilst preaching the ethical and artistic purity (or corporate compliance) of modernism, embodying the conflict for us all to see.
Sometimes the juxtaposition between ethnic romaticism and modernism is delineated by the interior/architectural boundary (by allowing by each tenant through interior design to ethnically romaticise their shop for the sake of marketing their product [for example, Batavia coffee next to Sushi train next to the IMAX on Grey Street]. This is all in the structure and coprporate compliance of an essentially compliant and 'pure' architectural statement.

[add photoes *Grey Street*Paxton's Crystal Palace*Jerde's MOA]
Sometimes this postmodern juxtaposition occurs within the architecture itself by the mashing together of conflicting architectural 'elements'... a roman column here, a curtain wall with sexy stainless steel door furniture there, a spraycrete rendered neolithic cave entrance here, a fibreglass pirate ship mast there... et alia...
[add photoes of Jerde's Horton Plaza*Dreamworld*etc etc etc...]