The February issue of Technology Review has an interesting note by William J. Mitchell on architecture, entitled "Build from Scratch." Innovation in architecture is really possible! What we presently live in and with are building and environmental designs that with resemble hideous ideological concoctions of the worse art forms.
As Mitchell correctly writes architecture is not determined by technology, but the architect can use technology to reflect received ideology. Do we want an archtectural nightmare going on about us. Who chooses the designs for buildings, their location and their fitness for a location? Do the builders even think about anything other than making a short term profit?
I have strong preferences for how we could be creating community environments. This is not to say that I do not like the architecture that I see going up around me, but I really wonder how much time is spent in design and in consideration of wider comfort issues. What I think we need is design that helps us live longer and healthier. I am disappointed with design that adds stress and shocks the system.
We have all heard of cultural shock. Many of us get used to a specific architectural and environmental design and find it difficult to live with anything new. In my ideal world, the edges would be softer and kinder to the eyes. My world would be like a cinetographers ideal world in which I would be transported in my mind to peaceful things. Perhaps the reason that we have so much violence in our world is because we do not love it as it is.
We hate the architecture that we see around us and we want to destroy it and everything that reminds us of it. Had we the love for our world and could we change it into something closer to our dreams, we would perhaps be less likely to want to destroy it. An example would be the presence of flowing water, comfortable banks alongside streams that can be waded in, where pets can wander and places where children can play safely. Can we not design technology for our urban areas that helps us achieve such environments, or are they unrealizable dreams?
