Abstract 1: Architecture as Economic Initiative

  

 

   

It is the intent of the Crisis City Collaborative to seek out defined or perceived crises within our cities and propose ways in which architecture’s role can be mediated or transformed to offer alternative systems and modes of thinking as a means to mitigate present issues.   

In seeing the city as an economic construct and recognizing its sustainability is contingent upon economic processes, my thesis will explore the ways in which architecture exists and can engage with the vital capital process. It is innovation and invention that allows for cities to maintain relevance. Failure for cities to adapt and retool lead to gradual decline and lead them to be matters of obsolescence within the global economy.   

A city is in crisis when it fails to function as a sustainable economic unit, incapable of serving the widespread financial needs of its inhabitants. Most cities within the ’rustbelt’ of the US have failed to retool themselves to a degree necessary to advance in the global markets of information technology, microelectronics, renewable energy, biotechnology and advanced materials. These giants of post industrial US exhibit stubborn economies, gradually leading to population decline, poverty, and urban blight as invention and production levels diminish.   

The link between the city and economics have been both synergetic and parasitic. Urbanity exists as a byproduct of economic exchange but it also helps feed it. As a location expands and becomes more ‘urban’ it often begins to see industry specialization break off into separate markets as businesses attempt to define themselves in hopes for a customer base, leading to greater diversification and producing more resilient economies. Corporations generate the capital that produces the city, and the spatial relationships of the urban condition stage opportunities for further invention and creation.   

In a global economy cities have become increasingly fluid. Barriers such as transportation, communication, tariffs, etc. have largely been overcome, producing what Thomas Freidman refers to as a ‘flat world’ condition. The development of transnational corporations by both their name and very existence prove this heightened non-alliance to place.   

Without a large draw or incentive there is no longer corporate responsibility to place, and America’s Midwestern cities prove this. In order for cities to offer stability and growth there must be a greater sense of loyalty and identity to help attract and retain development.   

Through this process, architecture’s existence has been predominantly downstream from all economic decision making practices. It is one of the most highly responsive systems to economic conditions and its very existence acts as a physical representation of past and present industry development. The only moments when architecture has developed beyond the reflective image of capitalism, and acted as an economic agent itself, has been through successful speculative development.   

In effect speculation and branding are the only tools in which architecture holds to influence the resurgence and retooling of cities with diminishing innovation. It is important for architecture to play this role as it can then act as a means to revitalize and reinvent both the social and economic structures of these cities. It is this relationship between innovation – the city, and speculation – architecture that I would like to explore for my thesis. As a means to better understand the implications of speculative development my research will look at both successful and failed speculative projects, considering current and historic rates of unemployment and overall population changes and regional quality of life rates. Further research will attempt to analyze corporate loyalty to place, programmatic structures which create stronger entrepreneurial qualities, and attempt to uncover the conditions which allow for cities to act as centers for growth and innovation on a micro scale.   

   

     

Bibliography   

Bishop, Bill. 2008. The Big Sort. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Companies. 

 

 

Political studies which analyses how America has become increasingly ideologically polar between regions and what this might mean for our country and communities moving forward.   

Florida, Richard. 2009. The Great Reset.  

 Discusses how the economy will reshape after our current recession. Through analyzing past economic ‘resets’ Florida discusses the phenomenon of geographically transformative capital that lead to moments of economic prosper, analyses different city industry bases and what the future might hold for them.  

 Florida, Richard. Who’s Your City?: How the creative economy is making where to live the most important decision of your life. New York: Basic Books, 2008.   

Florida has created a city rating system, considering opportunities, entertainment, job offerings, cost of living, etc. and complies this data to help determine desirability of cities in the US. These factors offer helpful criteria for valuation.   

 Florida, Richard. Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.   

Florida famously discusses the importance of young, educated, creative individuals and how their talents are working to reshape geography around America.   

 Fainstein, Susan. 2005. CITIES AND DIVERSITY Should We Want It? Should We Plan For It? New York: Columbia University.   

Analyses the importance of visual and cultural diversity within our cities and tries to determine the extent to which thee are beneficial, as well as analysis several community types in terms of resilience and economic productivity.   

 Ingels, Bjarke. 2008. YES IS MORE: An Archicomic Architectural Evolution.    

An architect who uses iconography and simple branding as a means to address a larger audience. In his discussion regarding his work it is clear that he has a fairly well versed knowledge of building development principals and gladly accepts those into the design. His mode of working attempts to appear controlled at times but its reality is that it is often contingent.   

 Jacobs, Jane. 1969. The Economy of Cities. New York: Random House.   

Sets the stage for an age of urban theorists to recognize that is it cities, rather than nations what are the true generators of wealth. Her notions towards import replacement and city growth have made a strong impact on economic theorists and remains influential to this day.   

 Jacobs, Jane. 2000. The Nature of Economies. New York: Random House.   

Discusses the similarities between ecological development and economic development, encouraging the discipline to recognize these factors are in sync with one another and therefore compatible.   

 Koolhass, Rem. 2006. Found In Translation. Ubiquitous China.   

Koolhass, briefly discusses the financial process of the architectural process of working to get bids and how to follow through with clients.   

 Till, Jeremy. 2009. Architecture Depends. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.   

Looks at the Contingency of architecture and how the profession makes attempts to constantly appear to clean things up and have a smooth linear process. Architects tend to want to ignore the outside forces at work instead of working with them.   

 Willis, Carol. 1995. Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.   

Details the relation between zoning, finance and building’s end form. It contends that these are the factors which differentiated the architectural styles between Chicago and NYC skyscrapers.   

    

 

~ by James Conley on 2010/09/29.