buildings are sentient and evil MF, if ykyk. Associated by a tangent only but there’s a great essay by Kenneth Frampton (towards critical regionalism) about what postmodern architecture is reg. the flattening and fracturing of deconstructionism and monoculturalism.
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Shortly after moving to New York I read (and re-read) Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York. He wrote it as a retroactive manifesto for the city that needed one and didn’t have one, but to me it reads like this really poetic and at times existential critique of the absurdity of NYC. The scale, the numbers and statistics, the unprecedented “grid”, why the city is the way it is, what lie beneath, and so on. Dave and I work in historic building restoration and getting to see the intricate inner-workings of how these old wooden structures are built is both deeply fascinating and horrifying.
Dec 11, 2023
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gonna butcher this take As I don’t have relevant readings to hand… let me know if u want them ☺️
But this is most obvious in large-scale architectural elements such as town squares, where co-presence is emphasised thereby promoting commerce in the area. However this also is true for small, domestic architecture, e.g layouts of old English manors emphasise a distinction between master and servant thus perpetuating this class relationship (I assume work has also been done about women’s domestic role in this same vein but I do not know it)
However the bit I think is interesting (and most relevant!) is the notion that architecture’s generative effect on social relationships acted as a catalyst for the development human society at the very beginning of culture. Having a single enclosed space immediately creates a dynamic between resident and outsider, and having multiple enclosed spaces together only further adds to and complexifies the possibLe social relationships that can be established.
Soooo the reason I think houses can be so scary is because by subverting any of the various ways domestic space works, be it through an intrusion (violation of social relationship generated by space), impossibility (Kubrick-style corridors) or some other thing, the very foundational brick of all of our societal structures is shown to be fragile, or whateva 😎 think u get the point yap over
Dec 28, 2024
Jan 19, 2025
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one of the many american foods perfected in the 1960s. once someone at my work caught the toaster on fire trying to toast one of these, I’m not sure what went wrong but I wish they had burned the building down
Jan 22, 2025
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feeling depressed insomniac constipated nauseous? you can always buy a supplement about it. does it have a name like a russian spacecraft? was it harvested in the gobi desert? good signs. you might be missing a precious amino and you don’t even know. I haven’t found the little pill that’ll fix me *yet* but when I do you’ll all be sorry
May 15, 2024