Summaries

Deep Space, Thin Walls: Environmental and Material Precursors to the Postwar Skyscraper

This article provides great context on how materiality and scientific research on controlling indoor temperature and conditions lead to many choices that did not benefit the human condition and its relation to the natural world. Creating factories, stores, and other building with windowless feature was seen as an engineering and design advancement. In conjunction with technological advancements of air conditioning and fluorescent lighting the windowless building style seemed to be a prime candidate for future of designs. The true technological and industrial advancement that skyscrapers were waiting on was glass production. The shift from handcrafted to industrialized production was a breakthrough that changed urban landscapes forever. However, it took WWII to spark a mass production of Thermopane for commercial uses as prior the technology had not advanced enough and was not cost efficient. The modern-day skyscraper can be admired for the unison of multiple advancements in steel, aluminum cladding, HVAC systems, and glass. The materiality itself provides a glimpse into history and having a better understanding of how materials arrived can make one appreciate and critique skyscrapers in a new light.

The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered

The office building was a response to the “social condition” of business pushing for a space to continue and yield higher production value. With technological advancements in steel, elevators, hvac systems, glass, etc… the building was set in motion. Due to the nature of these tall buildings an emphasis on utilitarian and cost efficiency was placed on the design. The magazine piece highlights the lowest levels as utility space, ground floor operating as a commercial store front, bank with lots of accessibility and 3rd and 4th floors (and beyond) become office spaces. I found it compelling to be reminded that “form ever follows function” in the context of a tall office building as it still must serve its purpose. The tall office building must subscribe to these rules of form following function, but the skyscraper offers an interesting insight in which our technological advancements allow for the form to change and evolve such as the integration of glass through mass production. What other technological advancements will change the way we imagine the future tall office buildings, or will the advancements go so far to make the building obsolete?

Space

The article on space takes us on a historical journey of how Western architecture and philosophy came to use the term and how the definition may shift over the years. Different iterations of the concept produced different meanings especially in the field of architecture. As modern architecture came to the forefront with it came the definition of space. Controlling the narrative around space and place aligned with the ways in which Modern architecture was being spread throughout the world. Colonial processes that question local and cultural understandings of space while stripping agency allowed for new projects to displace ways of life under the guise of a path forward. For example, ignoring historical circumstances of space encourages erasure as it ignores the reality that some cultures had much more advanced understandings space, spiritually, physically, and beyond. Lefebvre’s view of space acknowledges that being able to perceive and articulate space comes from a positionality of an already established space. In particular I found the understanding of “social space” to be quite compelling as it is in constant flux as and is produced and reproduced in constant relation to its circumstances. Additionally, Lefebvre takes it further and holds architecture accountable for upholding systems of oppression as modernist movements assumed that space is “pre-existing, neutral given.” Architecture space itself is not one of neutrality and it is one that is influenced by its moment in time and should not hide from its historical context, but better yet embrace the space it occupies as a creator of place.

Application

Examining Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC Pompéia in Sao Paulo which was reclaimed an old oil drum factory to provide recreational space to local communities. This 5 story concrete building is a great example of how space and place are intertwined to social, economic, and political forces. The factory had been abandoned and informally reclaimed by residents despite the danger and hazards presented. People’s desire to create spaces is intertwined with historical factors and Lina Bardi’s approach to reclaim the building in the 1980s and provide a place for residents to continue a path that they had already begun to create is a great example of an architectures ability to embrace context and provide a path forward led by local community.

Take Away

• Buildings like skyscrapers are emblematic of their historical era.
• Skyscrapers and their materiality provide multiple ways to study the way in which our social systems arrived at tall building designs.
• The spaces we produces are dependent on historical context, and architecture has a role to not only understand but be grounded in its positionality while creating spaces.