Reading Summary:

In the reading “Building the Empire of Glaze: The Modern Movement & the Surveillance Society” by Peter Jones, we are introduced to Michel Foucault’s saying that we are in “the disciplinary society” with high levels of surveillance. With surveillance being a key catalyst to a disciplinary society, they have used it as a ‘disciplinary mechanism’ and an organizing principle. Jeremy Bentham’s model prison, the Panopticon, was designed to allow an all-seeing, universal, “disciplinary gaze”, making it possible for all the subjects to be always visible. When designing with this concept, architecture was used to build for control. This was found in urban development, and the construction of working-class housing estates, hospitals, asylums, prisons, and schools. 

Aldous Huxley stated that “today every efficient office, every up-to-date factory is a panoptical prison”, meaning that everything is visible from one area. Modern architecture resulted from the shift to a surveillance society and facilitated the constitution and operation of the “empire of gaze”.

With Western metaphysics, modernity, and ocularcentrism, Foucault, during the late 18th century, noted that the rapid growth of population and manufacturing was seen as needing a controlling higher observance, which reconfigured the scope of vision. Then, during the 19th century, there was the invention of photography and cinema, which were later implemented to be new ways of cognition and control. Theo Van Doesburg defines the modernist design ethos as “certainty instead of uncertainty” which become key to the modernist movement. 

Glass gets highly utilized in the modernist interior with concrete and steel, all prominent elements of the new architecture. This also applies to commercial design as well, as well as factories, as it was a time of mass production. The spaces were all very functional and had an open-plan interior, which allowed visibility, and open to view, so one can see every corner from one area. 

Application to Building:

Meraki Coffee Co. is a coffee shop located downtown and mostly catered to students. Their design is quite modern, and a lot of the design elements deemed important from the modernist movement can be found in the way the cafe is laid out. Their placement of where the staff counter is allows the workers to see all parts of the cafe, so they can keep an eye on their customers. The building also has a lot of glass, stressing their concept of transparency, especially since many of their seating options are located outside as well. In the reading, it was mentioned that during the 19th century, there were new ways of control and awareness due to the invention of cameras and cinema, and this definitely still applies to many stores today with the use of security cameras. Since Meraki is located in a very small area, its layout is planned out to be efficient and functional, which was the main concept of the modernist movement. With their glazed garage doors that open up during sunny days, they also implement the open-plan concept to their interior. This not only helps out Meraki customers functionally, but it greatly helps the employees moderate customer activity.

Interior of Meraki: Staff Work-Area Positioned to Oversee Customers