Decay
“Reversion.” Photo by greybeard.
Gabion: Not building: the lure of desolation
“I’ll confess right away that my liking for dereliction is supremely selfish. It is built upon the idea of the lost world - not some jungle paradise, but a misplaced piece of the urban realm. To enjoy an abandoned fragment of cityscape is to want to be in it alone, or with just a friend or two to share the experience. It does not work so well in a run-down ghetto, which by its very nature is populous - though there is plenty that is evocative in such places, as you find in the now impoverished former commercial district and Art Deco cinema quarter of Los Angeles, for instance. No, what I am talking about are the true urban deserts, the uninhabited places. The feeling that there are teeming millions around you, not far away - but not here, not in this place. I should like to know more about the rustbelt zones along the railtrack between Philadelphia and New Jersey. I always like the look of the emptier, post-industrial bits of Queen’s. I have heard of the old fishing creeks near Kennedy Airport. It is precisely that sharp contrast of activities, effectively encountering a time-shift, that appeals…”
The bits at the end of the essay about conversations with Cedric Price are very nice. Thanks Matt!
November 23rd, 2005 at 10:23 am
1. Gabion looks interesting, and reminds me that so many of these kinds of sites fail to show up in Google searches and the like. Aside from word of mouth - as in this instance - how does one find this kind of stuff?
2. Guardian Unlimited | Arts features Q: What can be done to improve the suburbs of Paris? A: People are starting to understand that the real challenge is to turn peripheries into cities
“”A piazza is not a plaza,” fumes Piano. “The plaza is the theme park of the piazza; the plaza is the commercial version. A piazza is an empty space with no function. This is what Europeans understand.” A space without function allows one to be “in the moment”, he says, and to counter what he sees as a major flaw in modern life - the habit of interpreting all experience in the light of achievement, as a means to an end. We should, he thinks, learn to lighten up, and the creation of empty, purposeless spaces within cities might encourage that. “You don’t have to struggle to give function to every single corner. You can just wait and see and enjoy.”
Americans don’t really get this either. That is why when he attended the opening of his extension to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta three weeks ago, Piano took aside Shirley Franklin, the mayor - “a great lady” - and implored her to keep the piazza outside the museum uncluttered. The day after the launch, however, some commercial detritus was left there and Piano, an otherwise mild man, says he exploded. “Why? Why? This is a piazza not a plaza! Empty! Empty!” After his outburst the municipal authorities assured him that every morning the place would be “clear for invasion”.”
Piano may as well have said “Don’t build all over it. “Keep it.”
3. Now that you’re using Blogger, why aren’t there any RSS feeds available?
November 23rd, 2005 at 1:32 pm
Funny. A few hours later, Bloglines picks up an RSS feed where it hadn’t before.
Thanks! ;o)