Monday, April 9, 2012

FUTURE PRIMITIVE-Mike Jobes



I think that the living building represents the harmonious relationship between human beings and the buildings. The living building not only shows how to satisfy all kinds of demands on this building, but also presents the urban-natural hybrids. I think that residents play an important role in the living building. Human activities and social interaction decide the development of the city and community, and the living building needs to be reformed by continuous human behavior. Those behaviors can display how human beings try to improve their life and show the spirit of innovation. On the other hand, I do not believe that over planned and controlled building can show concept of living building.  For example, the developers of Celebration in Florida controlled everything in this community. In this community, people cannot show how to use their intelligence to refine their environment. It is the reason why it just looks like a fancy resort rather than a living community.
The pedestrian path also plays an important role in a living community. Riverside and Llewellyn shows how to apply natural concept into the suburban plan by those pedestrian path. The path presents the good relationship between environment and human, and it also shows the strong social interaction which we cannot find in new suburban community. However, transportation is really important in modern society. The city does not have good mass transportation system and convenient road system means that it is impossible to have long-term development. The living buildings also rely on the good traffic flow to commute from working space to residential area. Radburn is a good example to show how they separate automobile and pedestrian path. In the other words, it represents how to blend urban concept with natural idea. I think that the natural setting in urban area should not be so intentional. And it needs to be flexible and maintains the space for self-development.  
The economic purpose will stimulate the development of living building. The present value can decide how can developers invest in new project and adopt new technologies in buildings. For example, the speaker demonstrates the agricultural design above the strip mall.  I think that it represents the developer is inspired by the incentives. And the architects have more opportunities to use much softer way to construct green belt in the city.  Howard’s garden city might influence some cities in the world deeply. However, I think that the concept of garden city relies on the master plan, and the huge plan can lose the flexibility of the building. The intensive layout might not be suitable for modern society, and it will not help to thieve the city.
The over planned and over controlled city or building can influence the connection between nature and the artificial environment. The living buildings need time to involve into the landscape and the architects and designers can make an effort to blur the line between nature and building. Wright’s horizontal design is a good example to explain the urban- nature hybrids. I think that the concept of sustainability is also related to Jefferson’s ideas. The self-reliance   ideas can also be applied in urban setting by new technologies. 

No comments:

Post a Comment