Disposable Architecture
Anyone who has studied American manufacturing concepts is surely aware of the phrase “planned obsolescence”. The term came into wide spread use 1954 when American industrial designer Brooks Stevens coined it at a speech he gave in Minneapolis at an advertising conference. The idea being that a thing is deliberately built to lower standards than had been traditionally acceptable for two reasons. First, when it breaks one has to buy another…which feeds American industry. Second, the longer-term goal is to create a mentality in the consumer of always wanting something newer and more “up to date”. If you have a 30 year old refrigerator in your garage cooling drinks, and a new $2500 one in the kitchen with an admitted life expectancy of eight or nine years…you know what I mean. This has had an interesting impact on architecture? The Seattle King Dome, one of the modern super domes built as a sports venue, was completed in 1976 at a cost well into the millions. It was demolished in 2000, twenty-four years later because it was outdated. TWENTY-FOUR YEARS. The Colosseum in Rome was completed in 80 AD.
The Imperial Tokyo Hotel designed by genius architect Frank Lloyd Wright was built in 1923 and survived a magnitude 7.9 earthquake soon after it was completed. His revolutionary floating slab concept saved it from nature, but not from progress… it was demolished for future development in 1968. The Pantheon in Rome, another revolutionary design…the first large masonry domed structure was completed in 125 AD and is still in use today.
What’s wrong with this picture? If we are serious about future concepts like “going green”, and I don’t think we are quite there yet, maybe thinking more than a quarter century ahead would be a good place to start before we put up the next multi-million dollar structure. More to come on this subject…