A construct has the ability to change the minds of the masses on political and social issues.
-= 3 =-
Ideas are only mental musings until they are put into action. A building is an idea put into action, buildings make up one of the largest conglomerations of ideas imaginable. Buildings can take a social/political/environmental stance in their construction.
Ideas are only mental musings until they are put into action. A building is an idea put into action, buildings make up one of the largest conglomerations of ideas imaginable. Buildings can take a social/political/environmental stance in their construction.
-= 9 =-
Due to the sheer strength behind the ideas that construct a building, many people take the meanings behind their constructions as truths. When you visit a city the majority of a guided tour will introduce you to buildings with some significance behind them. It is the voice behind buildings like courthouses, libraries, skyscrapers, and corporate headquarters that I would like to direct at a specific issue.
This issue specifically deals with the Cape Wind Project http://www.capewind.org/ , an issue that is front stage politically, socially, and environmentally. The voice of any building to move this issue would have to be stronger than some of the biggest politicians in Massachusetts. If a building can be made that will convince the opposition of the project of the projects importance, a great service will have been done to the community.
This is looking at alternative energy sources, sustainable practices, and in my opinion, some issues of class. The project should become part of the infrastructure of the Cape Wind project, completely embodying the principles and ideas behind it, incorporating its own windmills and possibly a power plant. The project must also be in the publics direct sight.
Due to the sheer strength behind the ideas that construct a building, many people take the meanings behind their constructions as truths. When you visit a city the majority of a guided tour will introduce you to buildings with some significance behind them. It is the voice behind buildings like courthouses, libraries, skyscrapers, and corporate headquarters that I would like to direct at a specific issue.
This issue specifically deals with the Cape Wind Project http://www.capewind.org/ , an issue that is front stage politically, socially, and environmentally. The voice of any building to move this issue would have to be stronger than some of the biggest politicians in Massachusetts. If a building can be made that will convince the opposition of the project of the projects importance, a great service will have been done to the community.
This is looking at alternative energy sources, sustainable practices, and in my opinion, some issues of class. The project should become part of the infrastructure of the Cape Wind project, completely embodying the principles and ideas behind it, incorporating its own windmills and possibly a power plant. The project must also be in the publics direct sight.
How else do you propose to place the ideas of the building on display to the non-architecture educated public aside from placing them in the publics sight? What methods can you as the architect utilize in order to make the intentions and underlying meanings of the building apparent? I feel that placing these intangible ideas on display in a more tangible light is a great idea, but how can that be effectively and clearly accomplished? Perhaps the answer lies outside of the Architecture itself.
ReplyDeleteWell considering you questions I'll say that one of my ideas was actually to design a museum of past renewable energy sources, but as an answer to your questions, saying simply my project may be a museum to aid in the understanding would seem like too quick of a fix. I won't shy away from that idea because of your questioning. Of course one of my plans of design was going to be to integrate any of these systems into the public interface. Within this I would do so as a way of turning the sustainable system into more of a work of art, works that one could enjoy looking at, not simply learn about from seeing and being given diagrams to digest. How to translate these ideas besides that?...tough question I suppose. Maybe the answer is to combine those two ideas. Make not a museum of historical systems, but a museum of art in which the art are those systems, or not even a museum at all but work with an idea of a performance venue. Those systems would be unexplained but clearly depicted in full working scale. I would certainly prefer to not spell it out for people. I assume that's what you're getting at, how to let the systems speak for themselves. Working to make those systems have their own individual effects on people might really start to create a level of experience one would never forget. Using the systems in their individual inherent nature to create tangible alterations to space without altering the physical space could lead to a sensory experience driven by sustainable systems. Sight, smell, touch, and auditory alterations to space could provide this thesis with a very interesting quality of sensory activation in collusion with sustainable systems.
ReplyDeleteI second Dan's original question, though I personally don't feel that a 'Museum of Sustainability' is necessarily the best way to go. While I would defer to your knowledge on the controversy surrounding the project, as I understand it, the major sticking point presented by opponents is less about the obvious energy benefits than about this idea that the turbines will ruin their view from their vacation homes or damage the offshore ecosystem. The point I'm driving at is that if the issue is more about the physical presence of these turbines than their energy benefits, how will imposing an example in public allay opponents' suspicions? I think the location of the turbines is the main controversy, and as such, it is difficult to replicate those conditions offshore in a public forum via a demonstration. That being said, I do agree that a public display is more engaging to the public, though maybe your project becomes less about the Cape Wind controversy specifically than about this issue of the phenomenology of sustainable systems that you mentioned- this leaves a bit of programmatic flexibility that for now could lead to a richer exploration of the idea your interested in rather than being quite so end-product-oriented.
ReplyDelete