The following is an excerpt from the upcoming acsa conference which touches our current discussion topics on the non-place realm:
Cities are expanding, exploding, their centers becoming scattered in the margins of mind and space.
Cities and civilization have been inextricably linked throughout history, and the architecture of the city has been an expression of civilization’s highest collective achievements. But in recent decades cities have become hollow: Shifting social and economic pressures are challenging traditional urban forms and rituals, while new communications technologies have changed the nature of the social and physical network within which people dwell.
A global and generic megalopolis is the city’s future.
The city exists at a collision of forces of power. Globalization has given rise to a search for identity in a world of blurred boundaries. Spatially, this teeming agglomeration of people densely accommodated does not follow conventional planning methods; the ubiquity of electronic communications replaces face to face contact, and the non-place realm grows with an energy that eludes control. Corporations see the city as a commodity and aggressively deploy their brands everywhere, draining away diversity while defending their profits at all cost. Meanwhile, classes of citizens struggle to find their place in the economic and social milieu of the metropolis, challenging globalizing forces with grassroots, community-based efforts. Architects and planners play only marginal roles of corrective interventions.
How can we understand the emerging city and mitigate cultural, economic and spatial conflict in the fluid and pluralistic society? What roles can architecture and architects play? What visions will emerge from the margins to nurture sustainable dwelling places and promote diversity of people, of ideas, and of possibilities?
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