Bowling for boomers

HOW COULD REDUNDANT SITES LIKE THE BOWLING CLUB BE REINTERPRETED TO INFORM AN URBAN CONDITION RELEVANT TO THE INDIVIDUALISTIC BABY BOOMERS?

Bowling for Boomers

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BOWLING FOR BOOMERs seeks to contextualise the conflicted position of the Baby Boomer demographic.

Mining the ideologies and history of the Baby Boomer generation

this project is an effort to understand their position as both the instigators and the affected within a contemporary city driven by the forces of neoliberalism, privatisation and individualism.

This project highlights an interesting moment faced by the contemporary city, a moment in which the Baby Boomer generation reach their golden years whilst the structures and ideologies they have endorsed show their fragility. Through a close consideration of these structures this project frames the questions of an ageing urban population and further speculates as to how architecture is implicated in this.

As a demographic the Baby Boomers resist generalization. They are fervent individuals and their approach to ageing exemplifies this. In an effort to redefine previous generational approaches they are developing new identities – the third agers, the silver foxes, the wild elderly, the young old, transformers, revivers, new phasers, or middlescents. These identities reflect not just a denial of ageing but a desire to remain highly active in their chosen pursuit.

But Boomers are not passive, nor do they lack political or economic agency. For the Baby Boomers property is a means for economic improvement. A capital asset that throughout their lives has been traded-up or down to meet their lifestyle requirements, as lifestyle becomes their occupation in retirement, how the Boomers choose to purchase personal freedom in ageing will have both implications and opportunities.

BOWLING FOR BOOMERs pulls apart the assumed typologies and expectations attached to an ageing population and proposes a new relevant urban condition for the Baby Boomers. This project refuses to fall back on tired notions of community, neighbourhood and village so often found in retirement typologies. The retirement village has commercialized community, manufacturing it through nostalgic imagery and dissolving it to merely an advertisement.

And the baby boomer is too savvy a consumer to be sold this fiction. The homogenous imagery and edge of the city satisfy the Boomers’ pursuit of personal freedom through consumption and leisure.

This design proposes a new type, an alternative to the retirement village, an urban condition, dense

and intensively programmed to be owned, colonized and consumed by the Baby Boomers.

Bowling for Boomers

conformity of the cookie cutter does not offer self-differentiation. Nor does the sprawling suburb on the

ST HELIERS BALMORAL BOWLS BOWLS

PT CHEV. BOWLS

HILLSBORO BOWLS

MISSION BAY WOMANS BOWLS

MT WELLINGTON BOWLS

ONEHUNGA WOMENS

ONEHU GA RSA BOWLS

MISSION BAY BOWLS

MT EDEN BOWLS

MT ALBERT NEW BOWLS MARKE BOWLS

PT CHEV. RSA BOWLS

GLENDOWIE BOWLS

THREE KINGS BOWLS

Fig. 31.

Bowling clubs within Auckland suburbs

SANDRINGH

BOWLS

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CARLTON BOWLS

AUCKLAND BOWLS

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REMUERA BOWLS

EPSOM BOWLS

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ROCKY NOOK BOWLS

GREY LYNN BOWLS

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Bowling for Boomers

ELLERSLIE GHAM BOWLS LS

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Fig. 32.

Entrance to Grey Lynn Bowling Club

Fig. 33.

The abandonment of the bowling club [ Local newspaper headlines and quotes from Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone ]

Times 17.12.09 02.02.12

/Bowling club becomes

“…trends are

/Bowling

bid

fails

–

sex hot spot

North

-

Shore

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Club bowling a century – Central Leader 25.02.09

Waikato Times

privatizing and individualizing our use of leisure time”

“…life is easier in a community blessed with a substantial stock of social

today just aren’t joiners”

capital.”

“kids

/Safety overhaul planned at 'sex hotspot' - Fairfax NZ News

“A slow withdrawal instigated by the Baby Boomers from the political, civic and reli-

08.02.12

gious organizations.”

“…more Americans than ever before are in social circumstances that foster

associational involvement (higher education, middle age), but nevertheless aggregate associational membership appears to be stagnant or declining.”

/Bowling club

rescue

– Harbour News

rezoning go-ahead – East & Bays Courier 21.10.11 /Bowls club in strife– East & Bays Courier 10.09.10 /Lease hike puts bowling club in jeopardy – Waikato Times 24.03.12 “The vibrancy of American civil society has notably 24.04.09

/Bowling club gets

declined over the past several decades.” “social splintering”

/Putnam, Robert.

after

/

Bowling alone: the collapse and revival

of American community.

London:Simon & Schuster, 2001

“…broad and continuing erosion of civic engagement…”

move

shifts

Arson suspected at bowling club- Fairfax NZ /Woburn, Lower Hutt bowling clubs merge – The Hutt News 17.01.12

60 years - Fairfax NZ News 03.04.12 News 13.03.12

/Club

- Fairfax NZ News 18.02.12

/Richmond bowling club on the

“Americans now face a glut of leisure”

shafted' if green sold – Malborough Express 17.07.09

'

/Bowling club

/Timaru Bowling Club

sells

green – Timaru Herald 13.09.08 “the most dangerous threat hanging over American society is the threat

of leisure”

/

Game over for bowls club - Fairfax NZ News 24.06.11

/Bowling club turns 150 - The Aucklander 30.03.12

“…more Americans are bowling today than ever

before, but bowling in organized league has plummeted.” cans had

“tens of millions of Ameri-

forsaken their parents habitual readiness to engage in the simplest act of citizenship.”

Bowling for Boomers

decay”/Bowling club fears land rezoning– East & Bays Courier 17.08.11

“civic

GREY LYNN BOWLS

RID GE LIN ES

CBD

RID GE LIN ES

RID GE LIN ES

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Within Auckland the bowling club represents a built gap in the urban fabric, noticeable and recognisable by their geometry in plan, yet within the city their position is discreet. But the bowling club represents a different era. As the Baby Boomers seek to distinguish themselves from their parents, traditional forms of community and age-associated activity like bowls are rejected.

The bowling club is being abandoned; the land is damaged and the programme redundant.

As membership declines bowling clubs become hire-by-the hour venues or casual parking lots; others close down, are sold, rezoned or subdivided. The demise of the bowling club represents the changing culture of the contemporary city; a privatization of common ground.

The bowling club’s redundancy provides an opportunity to speculate as to a condition that satisfies a new set of demands, the demands of the individualistic Baby Boomers.

Positioned in a ring around central Auckland these gaps in the urban fabric allow for a new urban and acts as a catalyst for the elevation of consumptive commerce, a greater privatization and intensive reprogramming of Auckland’s second tier.

Fig. 34.

A ring of bowling clubs around central Auckland

Bowling for Boomers

scenario. The bowling club provides the site for the Baby Boomer’s purchase of personal freedom

To support the numerous endeavours of a highly active population, BOWLING FOR BOOMERs mines the

cruise-liner as an efficient model for the mixing of consumptive commerce with the domestic realm.

BOWLING FOR BOOMERs takes the Grey Lynn Bowling Club, and projects a dense urban architecture driven by the Boomers; a population that view their city as a resort and their architecture as a playground.

Perched between Grey Lynn and West Lynn this proposal exploits the steep slope between Surrey Crescent and Great North Road, terracing the land into intensively programmed surfaces of activity.

Like the sundeck of a cruise liner every inch is maximized for leisure and commerce.

The top edge of the site acts as the main pedestrian edge; the first tier of this proposal. In the middle there is a break, a pedestrian through-way from the adjacent suburbia to St Columba Anglican Church, Grey Lynn Primary School and Grey Lynn village. While the lower level provides the site’s singular

vehicular access and the dwelling for a highly valued product of independence, the car.

Fig. 35.

Programmatics of the cruise-liner

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Bowling for Boomers

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Fig. 36.

An intensive programming of surface

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Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 37.

Surfaces of leisure

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Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 38.

Surfaces of leisure

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Bowling for Boomers

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This design embraces the elevation of a consumptive lifestyle, replacing the suburban model with a layering of intensively programmed surfaces of service. Each floor plate is irregular with commerce and the domestic scattered between. The layering of these programmes allows for an efficient, dense and highly active condition.

Public space is reconfigured as consumptive commerce. Urban commerce becomes an extension of the dwelling; the living room of a bar, the back deck of a sunny café or the grand dining room of a restaurant.

Amenity is not gated. It is owned, operated and consumed.

The inscription of service on surface is driven by economies of scale and underwritten by the activity it supports. The resulting urban condition is an extension of the Boomers’ wish for self-differentiation and their acknowledgement of consumption as a vehicle for this.

The programme is varied and irregular. There is no enforced community through a central shared space, Boomer’s purchase an agency through property. Their level of ownership and consumption dictates their sphere of influence.

Unlike the retirement village there is no authority to govern, manage or profit. BOWLING FOR BOOMERs responds to the logic of demand and capital. It is within this condition that the Boomers become both the exploiters and the exploited in the capitalist commons they create.

Fig. 39.

The inscription of service on surface [Great North Road]

Bowling for Boomers

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Fig. 41.

Section [1]

Photograph of 1:100 Model

SURREY CRESCENT

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Bowling for Boomers

GREAT NORTH ROAD

GREAT NORTH ROAD

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Fig. 42.

Section [2]

SURREY CRESCENT

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Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 43.

Section [3]

Fig. 44.

Perspective of activity within section [3]

GREAT NORTH ROAD

Bowling for Boomers

SURREY CRESCENT

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This urban condition is an alternative to the retirement village, both programmatically and stylistically. Its imagery does not mimic a nostalgia for the village nor is it fully reconciled with the mega structure or the modernist block. Its concrete construction allows for a free plan and free facade but its organization is not restricted and it’s aesthetic not minimalist. The facade is broken up and plastered with the individual inhabitant’s tastes. Boomers hang their curtains on the outside so to speak.

Fig. 45.

Section [4] and [5]

175

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Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 46.

Section [5]

Fig. 47.

Sectional Perspective of activity within section [5]

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Fig. 48.

Section [7]

Photograph of 1:100 Model

7 SURREY CRESCENT

GREAT NORTH ROAD

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Bowling for Boomers

Individual interest and the logic of demand dominate, creating new conditions for the negotiation of ownership. The organization of this design allows for the surfaces of the individual’s capital asset to be tradeable, saleable or leasable. The architecture is a commodity to be maintained, enjoyed or

cashed in. One’s roof is sold to become another’s rose garden, leased for another’s yoga class or kept as a shrine for garden gnomes. Walls become cinemas, bicycle hangers, jungle-gyms or laundromats.

Architecture is the playground for consumptive leisure and commerce. The greater ability the architecture has to provide service; the greater it’s perceived value.

7-9am 5-7pm :FITNESS BOOT CAMP 9am-5pm: PLAYGROUND

RUNS LAWNMOWING BUSINESS

LEASE ROOF TO KINDERGARTEN

PROPERTY A - VEGE GARDEN - HOUSE - SHOP

PROPERTY B - COURTYARD HOUSE - CONCRETE PARADISE

BAR MOVES IN OPPOSITE ....DRINK while you DRYCLEAN

$ RENTS WALL FROM NEIGHBOUR TURNED PATIO INTO LAUNDROMAT UMBRELLA HIRE $2 / HR

PROPERTY B

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CLIMBING CLIMBIN CLIMB L I WALL

OWNS HOME and ROOF SPACE HERE

ice cream

Fig. 49.

Opportunities for the negotiation of ownership

This structure is not individually programmed, it is individually negotiated. Meet Joan, Steve and Barry...

... to maintain her busy schedule Joan relies on a built-in team of hairdressers, nail technicians,

JOAN out and about

JOAN

caterers, housekeepers

... what she lets the world see

has two personas....

dry cleaners,

... and her private world

and taxis close by...

JOAN at home

STEVE

A creature of habit ...every morning he stretches and warms up by the duck pond... Gym at 6:30am ... Showers on his patio at 7:30 am ...

BARRY

started mowing the driveway verges one day because it looked “unruly”...

$ Barry mows the kindergarten’s lawn

BARRY

...which led to a few extra jobs.... and then a small business

$ tends to Mrs Green’s pot plants when she’s visiting family every winter

$ mows lawn

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WESTERN SPRINGS

Thursday band practice with Geoff and Brian

Pottery class Monday evenings

... Steve then reads the newspaper over a cup of coffee downstairs .... THE ACTIVITIES COMMENCE

$ fortnighly Barry mowes Joan’s sundeck

$

Jogging Wednesday, Friday

$

Weekly tends to the Morgan’s patio garden

Property manager hired Barry to put in a mini botanical gardens to encourage bird life

JOAN

Bowling for Boomers

STEVE

Fig. 50.

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BARRY

From his elevated position Barry nominated himself an “overseer” of sorts. When the verge of the driveway got a bit unruly he popped down with his mower, from then on neighbours asked him if he would mind tending to their lawns. This turned into a nice little money maker for Barry so he put in a home office and bought a space for his ride-on mower and tools.

With his dazzling green fingers there’s not much Barry can’t grow, and often supplies the local cafe when his tomatoes get out of control. Barry’s known as a good sort by his neighbours, a trustworthy plant water-er and as a highly social creature he’s always popping round for a beverage.

A home body at heart Barry’s palace is complete with vege garden, pizza oven and roof top BBQ area for entertaining the ladies.

Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 51.

Barry’s marquette

JOAN’s public showcase JOAN’s private world

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JOAN

Joan does not stop, and is not planning on slowing down either. Investor and business owner Joan has been rather busy since the 2008 hiccup. Joan travels regularly attending board meetings and ensuring her presence and influence is known.

To exist at this pace Joan needs a team. Part of the PR of being successful is to look “on form” and unfrazzled. Joan’s calm and manicured demeanor is due to a finely crafted schedule of cleaners, couriers, nail technicians, hairdressers, dry cleaners, personal shoppers and taxis which she accesses by lift from her front door.

Joan out-and-about is many things to many people; a hard-nosed business woman, a fabulous dinner party hostess and a charming, slightly absent neighbour. Joan at home is utterly different. Her home is divided in two, the upper a public showcase and the lower her private sanctuary. What Joan will not let people see is the dowdy slippers, the fluffy dressing gown, the desk piled with papers and accounts and how tiring the “Joan out-and-about” persona is to maintain.

Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 52.

Joan’s marquette

6:00 Stretches

6:30 Gym

7:30 Showers on patio

8:00 Coffee and newspaper 9:00 Walks Mindy

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STEVE

After a lifetime strapped to an office desk, Steve loves to keep moving. The one piece of Steve’s nine to five that he chose to take into retirement is love of routine, every morning Steve is up at the same time, gym at the same time, breakfast at the same time…. Steve’s activity is broken into small parcels of time.

Perhaps out of zealous for his new freedom, perhaps out of boredom or itchiness.

Steve loves to be active, jogging from Grey Lynn Park to Western Springs twice a week, Steve and his running group are training for the next half marathon up in Kerikeri. Steve bought rods and reels for marlin fishing season up North and will try and squeeze in some kite surfing and kayaking over that weekend away.

Steve is a hobbyist and a collector; pottery, band practice, Steve plays bass guitar and is the resident library when it comes to rare LPs. Other than wall to wall records Steve’s house is minimal. Concrete floors and surfaces for easy clean and no fuss. A large attic storage space houses the surfboards, kite surfing gear, skis and rackets but overall Steve has very little furniture. Not much of an entertainer and not a fan of being cooped up indoors the one thing Steve does relax in is his outdoor shower.

Bowling for Boomers

Fig. 53.

Steve’s marquette

Fig. 54.

Model 1:100

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This design provides an urban condition for the pursuit of personal freedom. These characters are active participants in the cultural capital of this design. Their pursuits and consumption is layered up to describe a condition that is urban, active and youthful.

This design is a vehicle for the Baby Boomer’s pursuit of personal freedom. Embracing the consumptive lifestyle it is an architecture that supports the numerous endeavours of a highly active population through the layering of intensively programmed surfaces of entertainment and consumption.

It seeks an agency through commerce and in the effort to satisfy the individual and serve the individual the architecture becomes the latest lifestyle product for the Baby Boomers.

For me this architecture is one of anxiety, both in the inherent contradiction at work in regards to the by age or designing an architecture of exclusion. This project analyses the retirement village, the gated community, the bowling club and the cruise liner yet rejects the architectural colony promoted by all.

This design provides insight into an interesting moment we are facing, a moment in which the Boomers are reaching their golden years whilst the structures and ideologies they have endorsed show their fragility.

Bowling for Boomers

“maturing� Boomer and in the conflict I face in addressing a specific demographic without segregating

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REFLECTION The forces of individualism, neoliberalism, cosmopolitanism and privatization are inextricably linked. The preceding essays are presented as individual enquiries so as to allow these ideologies to be addressed at different scales. Postmodernity as a condition economically, politically and architecturally is still being teased out. There is a large body of architectural theory that critically analyses neoliberal spatial practices, or perhaps how space, property and its value has been influenced by free market capitalism in the latter half of the twentieth century.

In a highly specialized world the distinctions between disciplines are stressed. Part of securing a discipline’s sustainability is to articulate its contribution not in relation to something else but in spite of it.

That way it cannot be engulfed or marginalized or commented on by those external to its logic.

But for me this thesis was an attempt to grasp not only the architectural position but the wider political theory and contemporary debate. My interest lies with the reading of political, economic and social theorists and trawling through the competing positions of the media.

This research was an attempt to understand the current position of the both the boomers and the urban realm they form and inhabit. And through this interrogation suggest that architecture should be engaging with the political, that design should be contentious, conflicted and be proposed anyway. This design in many ways reflects this; it is a testing of how I could cloak a housing scheme that fundamentally aims for a densification of living conditions for the Baby Boomers in enough capitalist propaganda and glorification of the individual that it becomes a desirable product.

For this reason the final essay BOWLING FOR BOOMERs detaches itself from much of the research and reads as an abrasive sales pitch. The designed outcome is a framing of my conflicted position, although the comic is employed as a way of articulating the contradictions un-aggressively, this design and its imagery is laced with cynicism. Due to the multitude of concerns raised in the proceeding essays, the designed outcome cannot and does not constitute the same depth as the theoretical research.