Amoia Cody Architects - Times Square Development Proposal


TIMES SQUARE DEVELOPMENT New York, NY
Proximity, Context and Place The typology of space one might occupy in the Digital Age is changing. This is threatening to the sensory feel of architectural space, however, it is important to remember that changes in technology, which initially dismissed the significance of proximity, context and place, also ushered in the transformations brought about by modernism. The transformation of society at the turn of the 20th century pales in comparison to the global transformations of today. Architects at that time examined changes being brought by technology, in particular structural engineering. The pure geometry of early modernism was a response to the "machine age" ethos. These changes also fundamentally affected culture. It was enlightenment through technology. However, at the same time, changes in culture tend to form a veil of nostalgia that presides over the elitist circle. When fear of change set forth by the bourgeois finally trickles down through society a rupture ensues. We saw this happen during the advent of the Industrial revolution in 1820, then in 1917, then again in 1939 and finally in 1989 when the Berlin wall collapsed. This final time however, the collapse was marked by information not fear. In particular when applied to sensuous architectural space, the contradiction between technical advance and the nostalgic view, as it has in the past, creates anxiety for architects. "Can anyone doubt that our ability to produce more pervasive virtual space will threaten spaces of palpability and touch, the materiality, the physicality of building?"(1). We should look to the past only to find that momentous change when seen as guiding not as impeding can only aid us in creation not stifle it. (1) Sorkin, Michael. "Meeting Places". Progressive Architecture 4/1993 p.106-7

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