These two readings have helped inform my thinking about my own thesis questions because they got me to think about how I might aim my thesis question towards something that challenges people to think about the hard questions that we are never asked.
The first reading, “The Rural Studio,” challenges the reader to question their role in the community as a whole. This is important because the author, Mockbee describes how he was at a conference where another architect was working for the richest person in the world, and Mockbee was working for the poorest. Mockbee designed something called the “Rural Studio,” which was a design/build program that introduced architecture students to the “social, cultural, and economical situations of poor communities in the south.” Mockbee said, “It’s not about your greatness as an architect, but about your compassion.” This statement is important when thinking about my design thesis question because Mockbee is able to design sustainable, low cost buildings for people who truly need them, out of materials that he finds in the area.
Rem Koolhaas’s article, “Preservation is Overtaking Us,” was an important reading in relation to my thesis question because I’ve been thinking a lot about time, the processes that occur over time, the life cycle of a city, and how a building deteriorates and new ones go up in it’s place. This article puts that idea into perspective when it discusses the fact that we have begun preserving everything that ever existed, instead of just the important pieces of architecture. I’m not sure yet how this could completely tie into my thesis question, but the idea of time and what we should preserve or what we should let run its course is there.
Mockbee, Sam, “The Rural Studio” first appeared in Architectural Design 68, no. 7/8 (1998), 72-79, Also in Constructing a New Agenda; Architectural Theory 1993 – 2009, A. Krista Sykes, ed., (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), 105 – 116.
Sam Mockbee’s article, “The Rural Studio” (1998), asserts that it is the “architects responsibility to disrupt normative and accepted social relationships.” Mockbee backs this claim up with the idea that “architects should always be in the initial critical decision-making position in order to challenge the power of the status quo.” Mockbee’s purpose is to point out that the “more we practice, the more restricted we become in our critical thinking and our life styles.” We as architects must look beyond architecture, towards “an enhanced understanding of the whole to which it belongs in order to address issues such as education, health care, transportation, law enforcement, employment, and the collective community that impacts both the lives of the rich and the poor.” Given the language used in the article, Mockbee is writing to current architects, future architects, and students alike.
Koolhaas, Rem, "Preservation is Overtaking Us", transcript from a lecture given at Columbia University on September 17th, 2004
Rem Koolhaas’s transcript, “Preservation is Overtaking Us,” asserts that although it is important to preserve some things, the idea of preservation has spiraled out of control. Koolhaas’s purpose is to point out that “everything we inhabit is potentially susceptible to preservation” in order to show how the scale of preservation is getting out of control. Koolhaas points out that as time moves on, the interval “between the present and what was preserved” gets smaller and smaller. “In 1818, that was 2,00 years. In 1900, it was only 200 years. And now near the 1960s, it became twenty years.” Given the language used in the article, Koolhaas is writing to historical preservationists and current architects and students.
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