3: Reading Reflection

I always find the lifecycle of buildings fascinating, watching them change over time whether it is through general wear-and-tear, or through retrofitting and refurbishment, but I do love seeing the original character of buildings shining through its later layers of ‘make up’. That was why I loved Brand’s Shearing Layers chapter. Watching the documented changes to San Francisco’s Cliff House was astonishing, especially how the building seems to diminish architecturally with time, and thanks to the 1907 fire, having its original character diminish as well.

Life span of architectural elements.
Brand's 6 S's + architectural principles.

Frank Duffy’s and Brand’s four/six S’s are also very poetic and simple breakdowns of the main (and ever-changing) components of architecture, although I do have to disagree that the “site is eternal”; in these (and I know this may sound corny) environmentally-endangering times, we can no longer say that ‘site is eternal’, as rising sea levels, droughts and floods, pollution, and urban sprawl are changing the world’s landscape. Instead, perhaps we can say that site may not be eternal, but human desires, instincts and architectural principles are (drawing on Murray Lane’s previous lecture). I agree with the rest of Brand’s six S’s, as well as Duffy’s idea that we should think of buildings in a “time-laden way” for adaptive and practical architectural solutions, but suggest the addition of an overarching principle, or even as Brand briefly mentions, a seventh S for ‘soul’.

The interlinking (and dependent) relationships between
the Physical World and the Virtual World

Maybe we also need to add an eighth S for ‘Sustainability’ or for ‘Science’, to make room for new technologies. Or even another S for ‘Social media’, like in Juha Vant Zelfde’s The Aspatial City, where cities could be seen as virtual and emotional connections through networks and social services.

Seeing aerial images of Boston and how it transformed in 120 years was also fascinating, yet it was rather saddening to see many historical buildings removed to make way for modern infrastructure. This made me think fondly of Brisbane (which we don’t get to do very often) and how we still have some beautiful gems from our past tucked away in our city. Although our history doesn’t date that far back, it is still reassuring that with the huge population boom and expansion we experienced, we’ve still kept some of our traditional and gorgeous buildings. Well, some of them (don’t get me started on the Regency Theatre!).

http://www.daytours.com.au/info/tours_departing_from//brisbane/ 

http://bill-mybrisbane.blogspot.com.au/2010_06_01_archive.html 

 

http://waltzingaustralia.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/brisbanearchit-b.jpeg  

http://www.moviemem.com/blog/

My hope for the future is that we’ll still maintain our respect for older buildings and although some of them are atrocious now (and they probably make up 75% of our city!), they may come to mean something to future generations – or perhaps our gun-ho nature to building in the 1980’s should be removed from our future to save our children the visual horrors they created.