Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and usual way to travel, whatever that may be. Energy is equated with time
and compared to space.The relationship sounds so sophisticated and mod-
ern, but the Bible was doing it first, describing cities that way. An object
became a process became a distance expressed as time.
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At a deep level,
Soleri and others try to resolve the tension that exists as a function of civ-
ilization between thing and action, weighing each with relative value. It is
easy enough to recognize that the dynamic of the modern city arises from
the commute. Time, energy, comfort, cost, and social considerations (fear,
detestation, disregard) for surroundings all come into play as the commuter
pierces and eventually infiltrates the city with the values of the commute.
The tempo of city life, though intangible but nevertheless real, is affected,
rarely for the good.
The existential effect of this struggle is felt by every citizen who wanders
a city stopping to look first at one then another building; to the stroller,
each structure evidences the thought of a single architect or patron.As long
as that artist's work is visible as a distinct contribution the spectator's expe-
rience of architecture remains intact as a string of disparate constructions
each with its own qualities.The city, however, has become so dense, and the
automotive pace of viewing so rapid that the experience of architecture is
becoming increasingly rare—hence the ever-more frequent attention-
grabbing architectural follies of post-modernism. Only by inflecting the
entire built environment, or by creating some outlandish monument can
the architect practice a distinct art. So, three choices loom for the planner.
Anonymity through teamwork, such as Hundertwasser advises, beckons to
certain idealists of a practical and humanitarian nature.
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To others the
Romantic gesture of the free-standing building validates not only their own
identities, but, by association, the viewer is caught up (as in the heroically
irrational construction of Wright's Guggenheim Museum, or Gehry's
Bilbao museum). Finally, Soleri offers the opportunity for traditional archi-
tecture to dissolve into the fabric of the city by becoming the city so that
architecture and urbanism unite.This is not obvious.
Architecture is usually experienced one building at a time while urban-
ism or city planning is the experience of maps or long walks. Soleri drew
up the plans of a series of gigantic urban centers that extend the city plan
vertically.Thus, Soleri returns the city to its Neolithic origins as the coher-
ent product of deliberation within a small community, even while, cor-
rectly, claiming to have abolished the city. At least as the city is currently
assembled—as a maze of pretty spigots for utilities, buildings fashioned after
