ARC 597 | BLOW-UP Scale, Spectacle, and Spontaneity in Architecture

 

The human race has been engulfed by the power and beauty of technology for years now. Because of this, people have not been able to truely appreciate the organized chaos they are surrounded with. Not saying that technology has to come to a complete halt, but more of how people need to realize the beautiful dance that technology and networks create. How the different advancements can awaken different mental and inner senses. In Georg Simmel’s text, “The Metropolis and the Mental Life”, he emphasizes and analyzes urban conditions and its relation to the economics of it all. Different architectural elements all around us are constantly in the background of specific and special moments. If anything, they are the reason as to why we have these moments and experiences. Although, distance has long been an obstacle that many have not been able to conquer due to the lack of advancement. With the invention of the train, it has given people the opportunity to shorten distances between different moments. Merging and blurring the lines of different moments. In Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s excerpts from, “Railway Journey”, he discusses how the aura of a certain region is lost due to the shorten distances and how the relationship between destination/distance and identity is lost.