Chapter 1
The Impasses of Architecture
The Impasses of Architecture
Front Facade, Notre-Dame de Paris
Fifteen Million Merits, Black Mirror, 2011
Abboud, Rana, Public Space Versus Pokemon Go, 22 July 2016
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In the book Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, published in 1831, the antagonist, Claude Frollo directs the eyes of his visitors to the massive silhouette of Notre-Dame cathedral beyond his door, and said: “The book will kill architecture.”
For nineteenth century Hugo, the history of architecture is the history of writing. Before the technology of printing press was born, human communicated through and wrote upon the solid stone of architecture. With the dissemination of books, architecture reached its own impasse. Nowadays, we live in both the digital and material space simultaneously. We are always plugged-in various devices, and we roam through the sea of electronics- apps, social media, and games. We then experience, look at, and interact with buildings and cities in a very different way than we did in the past. We constantly look at multiple screens, ignoring the materiality of our built environments. We now navigate through the city without looking at it, while allowing the gentle sound recorded in the navigation apps to direct our path. Many, if not all, the intended architectural quality is ignored by people busy look down at their devices. Architecture has reached its own impasse again. So, as architects, we should ask: when everyone looks down at their electronic devices, how can architecture as a physical/material subject respond to it? And what does it mean to architecture when things obtain meanings in different ways than they did before? |
Project done in CED, UC Berkeley | Year: 2017 | Primary Adviser: Neyran Turan | Secondary Adviser: M. Paz Gutierrez