The Big Box Society & Suburbia
Posted By: Jordan ParsonsIt all started with a joint. Or more precisely the making of a joint as pertaining to architecture. Our professor gave this as a prompt to a classmate and I to make a small presentation about. They immediately then told us not to make it technical, so types of joints were right out. We interpreted this as using architecture to join different areas, such as a buildings site, context, and some other aspects of buildings. We took context as a jumping off point, and since both of us were from suburban areas, on opposite sides of the country, but none the less suburbia. After we made a few comments, and showed a few projects by other architects, most importantly New Suburbanism by LTL Architects.
This triggered some interesting discussion that I will try to get into later. On that particular day, our studio coordinator, Gerard Damiani was observing our studio, he noted that our discussion was being taken up in a larger sense at both the Miller Gallery here at Carnegie Mellon, with an exhibition called Your Town Inc. Big Box Reuse by Julia Christensen, and at a new exhibition opening in the Heinz Architectural Center at the CMoA, called Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes.
Taking his advice, several of my classmates and I went to both exhibitions. We found Your Town Inc. to be somewhat of an introduction to Worlds Away. Your Town Inc. was really interesting, it portrayed the different ways that in America, empty big box stores, have been reused to function as different entities. It was a very stark portrayal of suburbia. These huge empty shells were being converted into discount used stores, daycare centers, and churches. These were functions changed to fit the building. The building was not being changed to fit the function. It seemed a very piecemeal solution, neither side getting the best out of the deal.
This is where Worlds Away stepped in. Worlds Away was an attempt from several different architects, artists, photographers and designers to re-imagine suburbia. They were presenting designs that would change suburbia to fit the needs of an evolving culture and economy. Transforming one of the most wasteful areas of American society into potentially one of its most ecologically viable. Yet this problem presented itself in more ways than one might expect. Not only are empty buildings needing to be delt with, but what about the space inside of a highway off-ramp? There were some brilliant solutions to these sorts of problems. Projects like LTL Architects’ New Suburbanism to a project that came up with a whole new scheme of functions for a mall that was waiting to be sold.
The largest flaw that I observed in both exhibitions was people. I think that there are several aspects of culture that will take generations to grow out, and some may never leave. Things like property ownership. When your house is located on top of say a WalMart, it is hard to take pride in owning property. I know personally that I look forward to the day where I can look at something like a house that I own, and take pride in the fact that for now it is mine. I know many people who would never give up this idea of ownership, to them, and to an extent me, it defines who we are as citizens of the capitalist United States of America Both of these exhibitions, and the discussions provoked by both are important to the future evolution of society and architecture. They need to be examined and taken into consideration as we progress to our future.
Links:
http://juliachristensen.com/
http://www.juliachristensen.com/YTIMiller.pdf
http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/~miller/
http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/exhibitions/index.html
http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=4048
http://www.cmoa.org/exhibitions/exhibit.asp#worlds
http://www.ltlwork.net/
October 18, 2008 at 12:03 am | No Comments »
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