The idea of relevance is always in architecture but the aspects of what is relevant at the time changes constantly. Is there a way to design something that will adapt to the people and keep changing with the times to allow the design to never become irrelevant?
Most places become abandonded because they served out their pursope and are no longer relevant to the community. A huge part of the reason their services are no longer needed is because of the advances in technology, the more advanced we, as a civilization become, the more large industries become abandoned.
According to Geoff West “…cities are valuable because they facilitate human interactions, as people crammed into a few square miles exchange ideas and start collaborations.” Places that stay thriving for years on end all have a common factor, which is creating human interaction.
I’m really interested in this idea of design that doesnt become irrelevant; a reactive and adapting building form. Is there a way to design something that reacts to the things around it, so that it doesn’t matter if we are no longer here and some other life form comes into existence or whatnot the building/design will be able to react to them and become relevant to them. because how can we design something static for the future when we dont know what exactly the future holds and we dont know exactly what will be relevant then.
In the WIPP design proposals its almost commical that there are proposals that try to ward off other possible lifeforms or other civilizations from digging up the nuclear waste even after we are gone. How can we possibly predict what future generations/ species will find this site and how can we predict they will react to anything placed there meant to warn them to not dig will actually warn them against it and not actually make them want to find out whats there?
I’m focusing on three sites, a water tower in Essen Germany, the HighLine in New York City, and M50 Art Center in Shanghai China. I’m focusing on these three sites, looking at what made them important when they first were built, why they failed and were abandoned and what put them back into relevance.