photo by Ian Britton
When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with each other and ourselves. -Jack Kornfield
“What will our cities look like in 2030?” That is the question that is being asked by 3 leading architecture firms in this weeks, Newsweek. What a fascinating look into the future where buildings are self-contained “eco-systems” that produce their own energy and filter, clean and recycle their own water. As we see growing amounts of the population concentrate themselves into the ever-expanding suburbs one cannot help, but see an increased opportunity to network. With the move of the masses also comes the difficult task of organizing not only people, but the space they live in to help improve the quality of life.
I want you to think for a moment about the place you live in. Is it an apartment, home, pad, mansion (one can dream,right)? For the moment we take for granted the space that is allotted for us to live in. After a long day’s work we come through our front door, tired and spent, ready to recline in the living room to either take a nap or catch our next favorite show. We don’t pause to consider the space we encounter as we come to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat out of our modern slick refrigerator or the amount of steps it takes to progress through the hallway to set our work items on our bed. It never strikes us that the space we covet with name of “property” is in fact designed to answer to our everyday needs. Could life be lived without a toilet? Is life improved by having a bathroom? Why insist on having a kitchen when you have a front porch with a grill? Humans have the knack of creating space and organizing it to fit specific purposes.
A Brave New World
What really stands out to the reader is the promise of greater productivity. Gone will be the days of traffic jams, unused car lots and wasted space, but rather everything will be transformed to make the human’s life of live, work, and play seem seamless. Specifically when talking of Los Angeles, we read in Newsweek:
In the future life, work, commuting and recreation will not be experienced as distinct activities, but will blend into one lifestyle. Increased mobility and ubiquitous access to bandwith with global connectivity will optimize use of Los Angeles’ temperate climate to further blur the line of inside and outside. This will expand the spatial boundaries within which multiple activities can occur simultaneously. Individuals will be freer to roam, liberated from the traditional relationship between task and place.
The vision is breathtaking, ambitious and innovative. In some ways it can only be seen as beneficial, but why must we blend all of life’s activities into such tight space? What is it about the relationship between task and place that is in need of being “liberated”? There is no question that technology has moved us closer together, but also has pushed us farther apart. With society glued to their iphones, droids and netbooks we cannot help but interact, but it has only allowed us to accept the voice in place of the person. The displacement of personal presence and interaction (i.e, no face to read expressions off of, no intimacy that comes to us through a touch and no feeling of presence to fill the space before us) has led us to accept the artificial or virtual world. My question to the architects that envision such a city is simply this: “Can expanded space that integrates or blurs all of life’s demands draw man from the fate of being alone with himself? Can it beckon men to live beyond their computers, televisions, and cellphones?”
Alone No Longer?
What virtue was there in situating life and where it was lived into distinct spheres that men interacted in? It would seem to me that the future can hold no sacred groves, no secret gardens, no place to rest and no place to retreat to from the cares of life. Already the world with all its “busy-ness” intrudes upon us. Why “blur” such distinctions? Can a space be best served by designing it to capture all of life’s activities simultaneously?
This is a telling indicator as to the direction that society may be heading. Rather than slowing down and developing the space we are given to live in to build memories, friendships, and grow as responsible human beings, space will be utilized to assist us in becoming even more busier. Already the social ties are being severed by the shallowness that technology affords us, it allows us to not be known and that is a tragedy. Will cities of the future be designed to keep us busy? Will the community be only a cold network of people? Finally will the “sacred grounds” give way to the relentless expanding public space? What will the future hold in this brave new world?
Miranda: How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!
Prospero: ‘Tis new to thee. (The Tempest, Act V:Sc. 1, line 183-184)
