Here we go again with another Architect Denied article extraordinaire. My goal in writing this blog, which I hope is clear by now, is to change the everyday architecture you and I shop, work and live in through a deeper understanding of why architecture is what it is and maybe learn something about ourselves in the process (see my first article as well for more info.) As I gaze down on a neighborhood below, like the one most of us live in, I'm asked by friend of the future who is noticing a sweaty overweight man mowing his lawn with pollution spewing cars zooming by him on a street with no sidewalks, "is this when the mass human extinction began"? To which I respond, "yes, we had no idea it would come to that; well maybe we had a little hint when Al Gore warned us about "Global Warming""
Photo image from: http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com
Like many, I do sense and have a hint about what's wrong with our typical built environment. In suburbia where I live, its the endless strip mall, the non existent civic center, the steeple-less church and of course the never ending sub division with the sound of the leaf blower replacing the church bells toll of the time. I'm also not pleased, violins please, with how we trash the earth to place these unworthy structures in. You would imagine, as my friend above pointed out, that given our advanced knowledge of materials, design, science and technology that we would do so much better for ourselves and the built environment.
I find it very ironic that in the past, without any high tech gadgetry, cities and villages grew beautifully without architects, planners or designers for the most part (settle down everyone, I know much was designed by engineers and architects in the past). Take the Cotswolds in England, (video below)
or a typical New England village (prior to 1930) or a graceful historic southern city like Savannah for example. In these places you will find beautiful churches, squares, parks, civic centers, grand post offices, banks and charming homes all built with little professional help for the most part. You may say (I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one...sing it) that I'm being nostalgic or that architects and designers are not necessary for producing charming old villages (I can't say that I need my job!). However, you can't say with a straight face that the places we are creating today will be admired by future generations (except for the magnificent skyscraper and high tech Museum designed by the elite architect) For the rest, that's what the bulldozer was invented for (and for excavating among other things). I'm not crying for the past but those places I mentioned above developed and grew beautifully, for reasons I cannot give at this moment. Unfortunately architect denied does not know all and is perhaps somewhat like the great and powerful OZ hiding behind a curtain pulling strings and levers to get a certain dramatic effect . However like OZ, demystifying the problems and finding the solutions are but a simple balloon ride away... maybe to Savannah or over the rainbow?
So our neighborhoods and cities are lined with low grade strip mall after strip mall, fast food joint after fast food joint, the occasional church that looks like an overbuilt metal shed, the firehouse built of gravity defying stucco, the mandatory kiddie playground and the sprawl of characterless cartoon plastic houses built in over crowded clear cut sub-divisions are the norm. It should be obvious to anyone who cares that our built environment for the most part seems to be broken or is following the fast food industry business model.
Now some may say, "that is not my town, city, village you are talking about, I love my place"! and I say great. I know there are thousands of lovely well designed places out there and you may be fortunate enough to live in one of them, but trust me you are in the minority. You may even live in a resort town, a place where people go on vacation to and that is definitely the extreme minority! I also know there are many contemporary planned towns and cities that are wonderful no doubt like Lafayette park in Detroit. (see PBS Episode 4 video "Searching for Shangri-La)
But I still contend if you love your place, wherever that is, you most likely are in a minority (please, I know there are those of you out there who are very sentimental about the place where you live and are cursing me right now. I love my home town too but that does not mean there's nothing wrong with it) I think I have made my point abundantly clear about how little I like the majority of our built environment. I could spend more time in this article outlining exactly what's wrong and I could also easily show you many images that spell out the problem but I'm not going to do that. I'm trying not to depress you or I with what we are already terribly familiar with; it's sort of like a reporter not showing you the extreme graphic violence of a terrible crime, there's no purpose in it. You don't have to be an architect, or designer, or planner to know the difference between blight and right; beautiful from ugly, haggard from peaceful when it comes to the built environment.
So how will the Alternative Architect handle the "not so great common architecture" without showing horrible examples of it and without drawing a big YAWN form you, the sensible reader? So without showing you image after image of bad planning maybe I will go in a different direction and question who might be responsible for this mess? That is most likely getting closer to the answer but a very difficult Rubik's cube to crack as you may guess. Now we are talking about human behavior (Note, I have no psychology degree) and not the nice kind either, since those most responsible for our mess, I believe, are the sociopaths and psychopaths. Sure we know those personality types, they make the news all the time as serial killers and abusers of all sorts. We also know these people have no conscience or feelings of remorse for others. But what happens when a sociopath or psychopath are the planners, developers dare I say architects of our built environment? That never makes the news does it? It's almost accepted, the crimes against architecture and the environment, it usually goes without punishment. Watch this short video to see what we are up against. Most likely you have dealt with a person like this in some form or another in your life: maybe you have worked with or for one, or are married to one or are friends with one:
So after watching this short video hopefully you understand that not all psychopaths are serial killers. They can also be ruthless business men, designers, planners co-workers, bosses. They are people that care solely about themselves and not a care for you or I or anything else. We have laws to protect us against the psychopath but where are the laws that protect our built environment, our natural environment and the prohibition of ugly eye pollution all around us? (Please don't say we have building codes, zoning etc. that does bother the psychopath) Because the psychopathic personality thrives in a democratic free society, a certain percentage of the architectural pollution, if not a large part of it, can be attributed to them (and oh yes maybe a few serial killings as well!) -the rest to the misguided and untalented.
So there it is in a nut shell, am I being too extreme? Of course I am, but I have worked in the building industry for some time and trust me, I have come across many that have displayed textbook psychopathic traits shown in the video above. Do I have scientific or statistical data to back this argument up? No, I don't but my hunch tells me that if only psychopaths that kill are arrested then the others must be out there free among us practicing their trade. What, should we just give up since the law does not protect us from the insane? Of course not, because as much as this seems like a one sided jaded opinion about the current state of affairs, there are still enough good people in the world who do care - the point is we don't want the good crossing over to the dark side - This is our battle (Luke, use the force...no literally use the force) So no, we are not giving up. One last point I will make about the psychopath: when you are that ruthless and don't care about who you step on, you get to high places and become in charge, I have absolutely no doubt about that. So the people in the highest places that influence policy and exert control may seem to have all the qualities of a strong leader or they may simply be duping us- I have to say the evidence points to the latter.
OK, so my articles will continue (sorry to disappoint you) and kids will continue to go to school and become architects and the world will continue on. Hopefully we can stop many from going over to the "Dark Side" and bring awareness to the general public and help those fighting for good edge out the psychopath . I have worked with a psychopath in a past office but I don't blame that person for all the misery they created- I blame those that put that person in that position but that's another topic and another discussion.
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