Stars and Spectacles // You're Trying Too Hard

The Death of City Legibility (Part I)

Architects spend a lot of time discussing aesthetics. In fact, on the face of it, aesthetics might seem like the only aspect the profession cares about. Amongst some of the leaders in the field today is an emphasis on crazy form based architecture and other follies which are only possible through the powerful new world of computer aided design. To express this obsession in the words of Shakespeare, methinks contemporary architecture doth screech too much. Architecture is of course meant to be much more than fancy facades, decorative ornamentation and eye-dazzling spectacle. At least, I hope it is…

For some time now, I have noticed a very worrying trend in contemporary architecture, and no place can exemplify this more so than Dubai (amongst a long list of other oil rich Middle Eastern cities). From an economic stand point, I suppose we can shower the region with nothing but praise. Within the space of thirty years, cities all across this desert region have magically popped up, featuring the latest and most advanced in concrete, glass and steel. A fundamental mindset shift has moved these countries from oil-rich desserts to new economic hubs of activity, this change fuelling a diverse new building market.

At one point, I think many would have seen Dubai as the perfect opportunity for architects and designers. Imagine a tabula rasa where all our ideological dreams could be tested. Who knows, maybe Le Corbusier’s cite radieuse could have worked, so long as his lush green European Firs were traded in for palm trees. Frank Lloyd Wright’s unrecognised dream of Broadacre City might have been tested. Of course both of these were based on European principles and large open courts may not have been the most appropriate in the dessert climate but you get my point: Dubai and its fellows were a fertile testing ground for the utopian city we all long for. In the end though, what have we as architects done about this once in a century opportunity? Squandered it and wasted it…now lost…

Of course it would be unfair to blame the architects exclusively, but we cannot avoid the truth: more had to and should have been done. Ghastly towers full of fantastical separate aspirations sprang up independently, each building in complete ignorance of each other.
And why should we care about the other buildings?
Why should we have anything linked to our neighbours?
BECAUSE architecture, as the design and discovery of space and spatial experience is anything but an independent act. Regardless of whether we sit at a desk inside facing out toward new Dubai, or stand on the scorching street because each of these buildings are not linked by tunnels or shaded corridors, we are interacting not with one but with multiple architectural objects.

What has occurred in the city of Dubai is a failure to recognise that a building is not a sculpture. People do not simply stand around gawking and observing, as they might in a museum. Architecture is a heavily involved practice: people MOVE, whether inside, outside, around or between these buildings. The ignorance of human experience and the lust for spectacle has resulted in isolated sculptures on the landscape, each trying to stand out, better, classier and more interesting than its neighbours. The result of this is that all we can see are these blurred lines. It is as if the city were planned directly against Kevin Lynch’s idea of the layered city, the person is not confronted by a recognisable landmark amongst a series of vernacular, homogenous towers. Instead, our eyes are bombarded with a multitude of colourful forms and ornaments, resulting in an unintelligible jumble still loosely referred to as ‘a city’.

But perhaps not all hope is lost. Urban planners and architects need to remember the layered city. What gave the ancient European capitals their charm and depth was the layering, the difference between buildings but also the fact that there was an underlying understanding between buildings. Scale, proportion and ornamentation were considered and utilized appropriately, not slapped on every which way. Some of our staritects seem more concerned with selling their design as brands rather than considering urban issues or more significantly, the sustainability of our cities. Before all hope of the utopian city is lost, let’s try to at least pick up the pieces and do something meaningful and worthwhile…