i posted recently on
my flickr about my yearning for something more from a career in architecture.
The yearning hasn't gone away, and while work is getting both better and more frustrating at once I'm finding myself wondering how the hell i could possibly make a living doing something like
this. Seeing the images of people mixing concrete, then the little one-story house sitting there all shiny and new in Lima, relatively close to where i stayed while i was there, really melts me.
I can't explain the feeling i get when i see buildings made by their own users, buildings made by their own community, buildings designed and built by non-construction trade people, or DIY buildings. Wether its a tiny little treehouse made some restless and daring kids in the suburbs, a native american dwelling, a
squatter settlement in a developing country (or in a abondoned building/
tunnel in the US), or something like one of the many of buildings i saw in Lima, not much else in life makes me so inspired and honestly, kind of jealous, as when people are participating in the creation of the built environment. Of course, most of these structures are built out of necesity, a dire need for shelter. Nevertheless, i can imagine that with everyone of them there is at least some tiny sense of pride and satisfaction - the kind of satisfaction that you get when you make something that works and you can use, and you didn't have to buy it or have someone else make it for you.
Perhaps I am projecting a huge amount of romance onto the situations and people that bring these buildings about, but i can't help but be romatic about them. My whole life i've been wanting to make my own space, participate as a member of a community that is actively creating its own reality. I've always been attracted to these kinds of groups, in art or the world in general. I think the jealousy, naive as it is, comes from seeing these people going out and actually doing it -building and making, while i'm spending my whole life mostly just talking about it, and drawing up designs for other people to build. arg. at his point in my life, i want more.
Furthermore, i'm attracted to the unfinshed. I think I can honestly say that now... its something i'm coming to terms with. Ok well, maybe not the unfinished, but objects and spaces that are not completely controlled. spaces, devices, and objects which imply a variable, a future, or simply, a possibility. These types of works are not judged solely by longstanding aesthetic measures of '
taste' and whatnot. On the contrary, they are measured by what they imply, what possibilities they bring about. That kinds of thing
really gets me going.
The one detail that really really gets me so excited is seeing the rebar sticking out of the tops of the buildings in Lima. oh my... it really excites me. Especially there i saw where people wrap the rebar in plastic to keep it dry/from rusting... its like saying "we are seriously going to use this rebar sometime and we need it to actually work". (Though, according to
this, its just for a tax break???)
I guess, in a way, this is the same kind of romantic notion that leads people to buy SUV's like HUMMERS. They see the possibility, the design screams it, of going anywhere they want in those things,
hauling anything they want, all in total comfort. On the other hand, its the type of romantic sensibility that leads one to keep a shoebox, or a scrap of wood, or a set of old tools, that you might one day be able to use. Its the idea, "wow, i could really make something great with this!"
I'm not sure where to draw the line on this romantic notion, but there seems to be a connection between these common human urges and my drooling over some steel sticks popping out of the top of a concrete hut.
This urge can be overcome, or temporarily supressed, by focusing on the limitations. For me, a HUMMER has too many limitations - besides the price tag of purchasing one, i see the gas consumption and environmental impacts as types of limitations or burdens. They reduce the possibility, for everyone, of a clean and peaceful earth. well, in my eyes that's there. Maybe that's just a successful green-marketing campaign that's influenced my vision. That's ok.
At any rate, at one point I mentioned the rebar sticking out of the houses thing to someone, an architect, and they kind of cringed in disgust. I guess they couldn't handle the image of exposed rebar ruining the ideal setting of a low-income lima neighborhood. It seemed like that kind of detail was just unacceptable in their world. Which makes me assume that there world has no room for dire need and budgetary reasoning taking precedence over aesthetics. It was kind of shocking to me, as i told the person this with a uncontrollable smile of excitement on my face, which quickly disappeared upon noticing their reaction.
I could go on, as I have before (my thesis document), explaining how the rebar signals in my mind a very different type of society from the one I live in. There is a sense of participation, of real control and contribution to one's own community, culture, and government. One where democracy doesn't just mean voting, but living, talking, working, and building, with your community. Even if the type of community i'm projecting upon that stick of rebar doesn't really exist (like the hummer that never makes it off road), it lives in my head at that moment, and that's what really excites me. It feeds my head to produce amazing dreams, and my heart to produce overwhelming emotions.
Its similar here, perhaps, to the emotion that has probably contributed to the success of stores like Home Depot. I do see and feel a related excitement when i'm surrounded by all those building materials and tools, and orange. But in Lima, its like these people's lives really are so much more affected by what they are building, by the materials, and the possibilities of those materials. In the american suburbs it seems to mean much less - less is at stake. Now am I favoring people in struggling financial situations over those of well-off dispostions... hmm. i guess i probably am. Not sure why i am doing that... but it seems like a re-occuring theme/trait of leftists. I have all sorts of ideas about how i grew up to have these feelings, but thats for another time. Maybe what i'm getting at is indicated by the terms we use... Peru is considered a "developing" nation, the US is considered "developed". Developing implies that its in a state of "becoming" rather than one that is already defined.
I'd love to be apart of helping people do this. The architectural training i'm recieving could help people build better, safer, more sustainable and more comfortable buildings for their communities. I recently came across some info about
Fred Cuny. His
drawings to teach people how to build earthquake resistant buildings in central and south america are great.
anyway, its getting late, i'm getting hungry and tired, and i'm getting nowhere writing this right now. Maybe i'll come back to it later....
