Brown, GP (2001) Freedom & Transience of Space (Techno-nomads & Transformers). In: Proceedings of the 2nd conference on Portable Architecture . (2nd Conference on Portable Architecture, 17-18 May 2001, National University of Singapore Centre for Advanced Studies in Architecture).

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Abstract

The paper considers the continued reuse of our cities as ‘brownfield’ sites in response to our need for change in terms of facility space and fashion. It proposes examples of how space can be functionally transient, transformable, or ephemeral and remain psychologically an ‘existential foothold’. Contemporary- Temporary-- Our cities as artificial matrices are a polemic of permanence and transience, reflecting their milieus conflicting desire for change within permanence. Permanence as ‘existential foothold’ and constant change as novel entertainment, fashion. Transient tectonic solutions constructed in the folds of the cities are however increasing in incidence and dimension as the means to resolve the ever-changing demands of a technologically driven society. Within this context it is then hardly surprising that most architects and developers talk of a twenty-year cycle in terms of ‘a building’ associated with the particular function for which it was ‘intended’. “The division line between contemporary and temporary has become remarkably thin” (Korteknie, R. & Stuhlmocher, M. 1999) Techno-nomads-- This move towards transient tectonic solutions is not only driven by consumer culture but by a change in the emphasise of the technology market. The market has shifted from ‘social technology’ to individual technology. Technology is aimed at machine enhancements for the individuals of a mass culture, mobile machines through which individuals become techno-nomads (or cyborg’s) This techno-nomadic facilitation has had two profound effects, geographic distance is shortened consequently community has become tribal rather than local. Additionally architectural space has in some way lost its ‘specificity’. Space, in many cases does not have a particular programmatic facilitation. Facility space has in some way become a holistic flow where the differentiation between typologies reduces as does the difference between outside and inside. Integrated and interdependent with their machines techno-nomads become free from geographic and typological spacial boundaries. Technology has become less dependant on the specifics of tectonic space as a supporting infrastructure and with this architecture in some way becomes ‘free’ it now has the potential to become ‘experiential’ rather than function or facility driven. Architecture in a contemporary techno-nomadic culture has the potential to fulfil Tschumi’s description in becoming “useless but radically so” (Tschumi. B 1990) ‘facilitating experiential’ desires whilst enabling ‘nomadic technical facilitation’ to flow through its spaces. In a culture which has freed space from servitude, spatial experience should be created based on the stimulation of our body and mind more as a ‘verb’ than a ‘noun’ becoming a sensory interaction that includes, participation, interpretation and improvisation. Architecture can create space with layers of depth that unveil themselves over time and reciprocally ‘live’ within our temporal continuum, where space is a consumable experience and is reciprocally consumed by itself.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NA Architecture
Divisions:	Art & Design
Date Deposited:	22 Jul 2015 08:35
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2022 15:13
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1674

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