YuliyaGrebyonkina Fall2012 CCA ArchitecturalTheoryFinalPaper Man has always moved to new places in search of better pastures.

A steep rise in urbanization came in the late 19th and early 20th century. This sudden increase is well attributed to Industrial Revolution, which provided jobs and better economic opportunities in the cities. Urbanization still continues to take place in the cites, as there are many benefits to urban living. Cities tend to be more economically stable and have a greater technological advancement. In an ideal world urban density would provide a healthier social and ecological environment to live in. Less commute would result in less infrastructure and the decrease of carbon footprint. In practice the structure and organization of the city is more complex andunpredictable.Theidealconditionsofdensity got overshadowed by the pace of urbanization and the lack of adequate urban scheme. Cities began to swell too fast losing boundaries, taking over wildlife, causing anxiety, pollution and social disorder. Despitethepositivesoftheidealurbanenvironment,toofew benefits manifest in the reality of the modern city to outweigh the discernible and growing adversitiesofurbanlife. Cities swelled too fast. Within a 100 years with an increasingprogressofeconomic industrialization cities grew in a directly proportional manner. The development of engineering technology helped to resolve the problem of size, concrete and steel has allowed height and spans manageability. City began swelling and for a long time each

architect without realizing it would increase and speed up this swelling each new architecturehastobemoreadvancedandslightlyaheadofthepreviousoneintechnology, asisthecaseincontemporarysociety(i.e.,Dubai,everyotherobject(orarchitecture)hasto be the tallest). In doing so architects diminished themselves and their objects as cities grew bigger, at some point they lost control over this growth. Rem Koolhaas applies this ideainthefirstofhistheoremsofBigness: Beyond acertaincriticalmass,abuildingbecomesaBigBuilding.Suchamasscan no longer be controlled by a single architectural gesture, or even by any combination of architecturalgestures...(Bigness,499) From a finite inward oriented and nestled in the heart of nature(Picon,66) entity cities turned into the limitless sprawl of buildings and highways that fade away beyond the horizon line with cranes, immense bridges spanning platforms lined with containers, refineries and factories (Picon, Anxious Landscapes:From the Ruin to Rust,65). Thecity stops being in thelandscape,asasortmonumentalsignature,tobecome,progressively,in and of itself, landscape (Picon,67). The concept of serenity andpeaceusuallyassociated with landscape tradition have morphed into uncertain anxietydriving scenes of ruins. Picturesquely manicured city of high rises sprawled out stretching its crude tentacles out wheneveritcould.ItbecamehardtodefinethecityasaWholethathasabeginningandan end. The objects (or architecture) that could define the city were not built with a commitment of defining the city they appeared as a coincidences of economical,practical and/or some other acquisitive reasons. The citygrewwhereitwantedinaveryfragmented way,steppingovereverythingthatappearedonitsway.

CIty is no longer oriented within the environmental complex, it has taken over and became a distinct entity on its own. Nature in its turn have yielded from the construction andconcernsofmetropolis.AntoinePiconsays: ...Nature seems to have obliterated itself or at least yieldedtomanmadeartifacts...(65)In many cases, the relation between manmade constructions and nature is inverted, nature finding itself henceforth circumscribed, as if confined within mechanisms that no longer haveanythingtodowithit(66) Technological progress and the process of discovering the Terra Incognita, exploring the unknown and mapping the globe, has led to another shift in perception about closing of the world (Picon, 71). It revealed the scale of urban landscapes and highlightedhowlittle of a natural (untouched) there is left. The planet becomes a closed environment that nobody can escape from. The planet has become a place with artifacts over natural objects(72). As mentioned before in the ideal urban environment, density would only seed happiness, healthiness and joy. Society would take down the fence hedge and open their hearts up into a tight knit social institution. Townhouses and suburbs would be eliminated allowing thewildlifeandrawlandscapetoreconstructitselftotheoriginalserenecondition. Vast network of infrastructure would no longer be in use nor would the vehicles, society would no longer suffer from obesity, depression and alienation. However the Real of density has played out a different scenario for contemporary society. Increasing migration of the people into the cities in the hands of belittled architects caused crowding of urban areas. Density did not spread as it was supposed to in the ideal world and it led to an

imbalanced conditions, in some parts cities began decaying on one side and excessively growing on others. Excessive industrialization brought in environmental problems like pollution, disappearance of indigenous flora and fauna species, global warming, exhaustionofnaturalresourcesandwaterandmanyothercriticalissues. Surely economic rise has given people opportunities and stability. However, onthe back side of that stability it created selfsufficiency in the society. Technology might have brought the world closer and easier to reach but human beings have gone far apart from one another. High rise buildings built up walls between people, society has taken a selfcenteredinterestsasanideology. kp.o ...Photography has largely replaced painting movies and videogames have replaced poetry... (Picon, 69) ...the territory of emptiness of the big city is also a territory of consumption. The contrasts that structure this territory are incarnated, consequently, inthe faceoff between two places invested with a strong emotional force: the shopping center andgarbagedump...(Picon,75). Forsomeperiodoftimethissolutionseemtowork,howeverwhendecayprocessbeginsto showanxietyreturns. People fear decay in a way as they feel the anxiety coming from notions of obsolescence. Disconnect with nature only helps people to forget that decay is again a natural process. Everything becomes temporary and short living. We are always in a shortterm relationships, divorce rates are at high people constantly want to upgrade their belongings whether it is wardrobe, cars, cell phones or even friendship. Such a close

connection with the death of living things scares people and possibly decay is frightening asanimplicationofdeath. Technological landscape became an all devouring senseless machine that no longer considers people as individuals and treats contemporary society using flocking under unknown and uncovered predation strategies. Rem Koolhaas talks about it in his next2theoremsofBigness: 2.Issuesofcomposition,scale,proportion,detailarenowmoot. TheartofarchitectureisuselessinBigness. 3. In Bigness the distancebetweenthecoreandenvelopeincreasestothepointwherethe facadecannolongerrevealwhathappensinside.Thehumanistexpectationofhonestyis doomed... Where architecture reveals, Bigness perplexes Bigness transforms the city from a summationofcertaintiesintoanaccumulationofmysteries With an invention of the elevator shaftcitiesbeganindefinitelygrowingupinheight. This switch from horizontal to the vertical excluded any potential context and made architecture useless, as noorder,sequentiallogicandorganizationmatteredatthatpoint as all of it became simply vertical. Bigness could no longer correlate itself with a person either. Its only measure became too small. No doubt it is for this reason that we feel at times lost and distressed in the middle of our cities, cities as large as the ogre`s house (Picon, 81). Maybe thisiswhywhenonethinksofacitytwocontradictoryemotionstendto appear. One of the city bright and vibrant, heavily congested with millions ofpeopleand anothertheinternalfeelingofemptinessofthecity,anxietyontheedgeofhystericalfear.

Technological landscape in all its aspects (architecture,industry, computer, media, entertainment) has become an all embracing immersion in contemporary society. Heavily concentratedonconsumerismandglobalizationitcompletelytransformedanddistortedthe perceptions and ideals of human life and nature. Density can be a solution if not simply dumped into the boiling orchestra of uncontrolled City. Density has to reconsider the presence of nature and individuals. Bigness of the technological landscape carries a danger to the mental and physical health of the society. Humanity has to switch from the mode of temporal contracts and consumption and look for the space and places of opportunity to reconnect with Nature and return the value of an individual back into the society. City has left behind decaying unaccounted spots interstitial spaces, brownfield sites, disused industrial sites, railway lines and stations, abandoned ports and plots in ruins (K. Kamvasinou, Vague Parks). These places have developed their own lifestyle where vegetation found a way to spread and sustain itself, people occupy and use the space in a frivolous manner. Nature began to make its way back to the city through these places. May be,contemporaryarchitectsandsocietyhavetotakealookatemptylotsand placesasaprecedent,allowingtheexistingmodeltocrack,decayanddecompose.