It has been said that architecture had always arrived last on the scene, being part of a movement. It is the natural order of things. The elements of social construct are generated one by one, with intent and care, over some period of time. Over time culture itself is cultivated. Today, it may be called a happening or an event. Although the new arrives in each present moment or further, epoch, whether brand new or momentously, it is not aligned with the historical records for architecture to be the first on the scene. Perhaps in the case of the ancient cave dwellers, the situation of effective architecture for dwelling and painting was the reverse because the accommodations were simply given. However, as they came to an understanding of the dwelling as shared space which could be created on demand with the then developed skills, in fact, these dwellers discovered they could create art first. They painted the cave walls with depictions of their environment, the world they negotiated, in such sophistication that even Picasso exclaimed that already all was known, that discoveries apparently only made in modernism were practiced from the beginning of history.
But to return to architecture - from whence does it originate? Has something changed so that architecture could now no longer follow the natural order of events? Again, where does the instance of architecture begin? This is a question worthy of consideration, as in today's information society, many things that used to happen in linear sequence, now occur simultaneously or at least in some sort of hyperlinear order. The practice of referencing and citing literature when ideas are used in one's propositions ought to provide some guidance for making sense of the nonlinear distribution of things and events. It is a practice that is reliable, perhaps at first sight antiquated, but nevertheless embodied in the technologies which have emerged from the practice itself. When did Memex emerge as an idea later discovered to be viable and became hypertext? That was before the widespread development and adoption of hypertext, or course. The methodologies of modern science were maturing and so also the systematization of referencing other literature became developed. The scientific community discovered that a system of reference and citation allows accountability, credit, and accuracy and precision. It allows new and old work to be able to be traced back to their original sources. This can be a very revealing action, to know where something had come from and what later developments are. Well, perhaps the second possibility is not yet real.
I propose that we venture forth by attempting the following. We plan to put forward a series of elements, let's call these core elements. We will not put them onto the land all at the same time nor even sequentially one following another. We will locate one site for the first one first. How the site will be determined should be by some form of consensus, not a literal vote, but by the genesis of conditions deemed appropriate for the situation of a core element. How should such conditions find their appearance? This is indeed the problem. How many designers and architects and artists and writers and everybody could contribute to identifying the local or regional problems where the land is more sparse, which require solutions? If we were to follow the established order for the emergence of architecture as posterior, then where first problems can be identified and agreed upon, then a concerted effort to resolve them with new or adapted designs would become possible.
Has cultural amnesia erased our memories of how roads and bridges are built in synchrony with the growth of a society? We can willfully move our communities to propose and resolve problems that had arisen due to distending. If core elements are subject to review in context of an emergent masterplan that spans, say, a nation, secondary elements can then be built upon a view to the aesthetics of the network. We can't allow our symptomatic tendencies towards sprawl and abandonment to lead to apathy towards the furnishing of our home and thereby and more importantly our sense of well being. The problems of the world do not need to be before our own. Perhaps they are not even presently relevant.
This is where I propose we begin again. I must emphasize the importance of some form of synchrony between putting forward infrastructure and the growth of localities. In summary, the proposition of core and secondary elements; the invitation for identifications and proposals; the making of optimal conditions for local and regional growth; and synchronized erection of design solutions for the community and infrastructure supporting them.
A starter kit.
