Superfund Process
16 years ago
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
First Formal Proposal Transcript
Architecture's Grand TOURISM:
the re-emergence of localities within a global discourse
Architecture is ever engaged in a type of colonization. Similar to historical empires exploitation of colonial economies, architects seek to exploit. The way in which architects operate onto foreign locations is opportunistic: many will build wherever a commission emerges with a large enough price tag. The locations of these aggressive insertions are by no means passive victims in this pattern: many cities solicit and compete to create large commissions by top designers in their own backyard. As architecture has a longstanding and complex relation to both power and identity, this practice of competition between localities through architecture is long established.
Due to increasing globalization, this practice has become more commonplace and accelerated in recent years. Today, cities from Denver to Bilbao to Dubai to Beijing are all in competition to create the next architectural tourist attraction. Many world-famous architects now build each project in a different country and are therefore by no means experts on the cultures for which they create. In their rush to erect the next literal tourist attraction, architects have become a version of tourists in themselves—and not as a conscientious eco-tourist. However much they may protest that they are giving back to the communities in which they build, practitioners use emerging economies as their experimental playgrounds and push their own agendas to extreme levels.
This phenomenon represents what can be termed Archi-Tourism. The question asked by this thesis is if it is possible for architecture to come into a culture as a responsible tourist, without profoundly mangling that identity which initially attracted it? And, if so, would this constitute a more desirable relationship of the locality to a globalized architectural practice? This thesis proposes that a healthy relationship between the culture of locality and the Archi-Toursit is not only possible, but urgently necessary in the growing trend of hyper-locality in today’s culture. This new locality manifests itself in trends from local food production systems to micro-finance economic models. It can be argued that the current world financial situation will accelerate this trend, making this search for a new model very timely.
The critical project to investigate this proposal has two requirements: 1) That the site be a neutral and defamiliarizing location, preventing the architect and critic from operating on preconceptions and cultural platitudes; and 2) That the program bring into direct confrontation both the international and globalized elements of architecture with its more specific, cultural and identifying role. The vehicle to address these issues will be a design project for a Worlds Fair or World Exposition which will be subsequently repurposed into the National Capital Complex for New Nation of Kosovo. Historically, the Worlds Fair represents the ultimate condition of architectural tourism, while a National Capital building represents a an important architectural component for identity and the coalescence of a culture. As the newest Nation-State, the population of Kosovo demonstrates a strong desire to forge a national identity. This unique circumstance of global cultural context, site and program is poised to re-imagine the role of the Archi-Tourist.
the re-emergence of localities within a global discourse
Architecture is ever engaged in a type of colonization. Similar to historical empires exploitation of colonial economies, architects seek to exploit. The way in which architects operate onto foreign locations is opportunistic: many will build wherever a commission emerges with a large enough price tag. The locations of these aggressive insertions are by no means passive victims in this pattern: many cities solicit and compete to create large commissions by top designers in their own backyard. As architecture has a longstanding and complex relation to both power and identity, this practice of competition between localities through architecture is long established.
Due to increasing globalization, this practice has become more commonplace and accelerated in recent years. Today, cities from Denver to Bilbao to Dubai to Beijing are all in competition to create the next architectural tourist attraction. Many world-famous architects now build each project in a different country and are therefore by no means experts on the cultures for which they create. In their rush to erect the next literal tourist attraction, architects have become a version of tourists in themselves—and not as a conscientious eco-tourist. However much they may protest that they are giving back to the communities in which they build, practitioners use emerging economies as their experimental playgrounds and push their own agendas to extreme levels.
This phenomenon represents what can be termed Archi-Tourism. The question asked by this thesis is if it is possible for architecture to come into a culture as a responsible tourist, without profoundly mangling that identity which initially attracted it? And, if so, would this constitute a more desirable relationship of the locality to a globalized architectural practice? This thesis proposes that a healthy relationship between the culture of locality and the Archi-Toursit is not only possible, but urgently necessary in the growing trend of hyper-locality in today’s culture. This new locality manifests itself in trends from local food production systems to micro-finance economic models. It can be argued that the current world financial situation will accelerate this trend, making this search for a new model very timely.
The critical project to investigate this proposal has two requirements: 1) That the site be a neutral and defamiliarizing location, preventing the architect and critic from operating on preconceptions and cultural platitudes; and 2) That the program bring into direct confrontation both the international and globalized elements of architecture with its more specific, cultural and identifying role. The vehicle to address these issues will be a design project for a Worlds Fair or World Exposition which will be subsequently repurposed into the National Capital Complex for New Nation of Kosovo. Historically, the Worlds Fair represents the ultimate condition of architectural tourism, while a National Capital building represents a an important architectural component for identity and the coalescence of a culture. As the newest Nation-State, the population of Kosovo demonstrates a strong desire to forge a national identity. This unique circumstance of global cultural context, site and program is poised to re-imagine the role of the Archi-Tourist.
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