About Praxis Essay - Alexander Hussey

Page 18

Evolution Ensuring the continual development of identity by both physically and functionally integrating proposals within their environment.

This final principle highlights the relationship between ‘Spatial layout and functionality’ and the final outcome of ‘Identification’. For identity to remain as a constant adversary of generic design, it must continue to evolve and adapt to the changing dynamics of place. However, “new technologies, globalization and ‘time-space-compression’ have sought to represent localized identities as historical, regressive characteristics, and have worked to undermine the old allegiances of place and community.” (Mohammed Qasim Abdul Ghafoor, 2013, p.934).

The historicism and social perceptions of place identity can “often give the false impression that good local architecture requires us to freeze in some celebratory fashion a moment in the evolutionary process of our cities and villages” (Derakhshani, 2012, p.31). However, if a form of historic presence and place identity is not maintained, could generic arrangement formulate future design decisions as exemplified in Rem Koolhaas’s “the generic city”? (Fig.20) The repetitive nature of the concept suggests “in its profound sameness, the generic city was a more accurate reflection of contemporary urban reality than nostalgic vision” (Girvin, 2020).

Generic City Image Fig.20 Rem Koolhaas, Generic City (Koolhaas, 1995)

16


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.