Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
21. When New York's subway workers went on strike and the entire system shut
down, it was fascinating to see the enormous metropolis reduced to forty or fifty
neighborhoods, each with its own small shops and a vitality circumscribed by easy
walking distance.That is, New York City as currently experienced is not a political
entity at all; I would maintain it is now a function of its mass-transit system. No
metaphor to bodily circulation is required to defend this point once it was demon-
strated by the transit workers' job action.
22. The aesthetic implicit here (or politico-managerial outlook) was best spelled
out by Gilbert Sorrentino (
The Perfect Fiction,
1968, 29), whose poem of a single
triadic stanza I quote in its entirety:“Something plus something is not one thing. /
An insufferable vicious truth. / One lives with it or one dies. Happy.”
23. There is, to be honest, a paternalistic manner in approaching this issue which
has been characterized by Alexander Tzonis as the “paradox that most theories of
architecture whose task was rationalization have in common their preoccupation
with visual order, the look of the product.There is a greater concern that the build-
ing should
look
rational rather than that rational methods should be employed in its
design.” (
Toward a Non-Oppressive Environment,
i press, 1972, 87) While Soleri clearly
wishes to anticipate and organize every aspect of society within his giant colonies,
the visual effect of his planned buildings is not so much rational as heroic sculptural
while Hundertwasser is merely anti-rational in appearance while he employs ultra-
rational methods.
24. It would prove guileless to ignore that “many people like suburbia” (Robert
Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour,
Learning from Las Vegas,
MIT
Press, 1977, 154). On the other hand, many people like to eat fattening foods,
smoke, remain sedentary, wallow in thoughtlessness, drive SUVs in cities, abuse their
spouse, vote foolishly and scorn whatever is alien or novel.What people 'like' hardly
matters when considering the possibility of societal self-extinction. The mythical
sybarites were as happy as the modern ones. On the other hand, a censorious tone
is not mandatory; many Americans live in suburbia because, the central cities hav-
ing been eviscerated, the vital urban experience must be gathered on vacations
when suburbanites gladly fly thousands of miles to walk streets where people work
and
live
and
play
and
shop.
25. Naomi M. Bloom,
Science Digest,
March 1991.
26. Hundertwasser has also developed his theory (first exhibited as part of “Trien-
nale di Milano,” 1973) when he planted twelve “Tree Tenants” through windows at
Via Manzoni.These trees each occupied an apartment (rent-subsidized by a grant).
Subsequent tree tenants have been placed in Vienna, at Alserbachstrasse, 1980, and,
to marvelous effect on the roof of KunsthausWien where they form a forest, colo-
