Week 5 Reading

Erasing architecture into the system

Just as Cedric Price drives himself we should all "forge ahead conscientiously as an architect.. [to] propose schemes [to] respectively create new conditions in the human living environment" while challenging and creating new "ideas that break clean away from existing notions."  Cedric price introduces "non-architectural ideas into architectural ideas into architecture today".

To me Price and his fellow Archigram members seem to be more about architectural ideology and theory than actually trying to applying their ideas and techniques to real world applications. Although incredible elaborate and ahead of his time Price's ideas were truly amazing. The technology may not even have been invented for his Fun Palace to be built however his fundamental ideas were sound and applicable to Project 1 and the woodford site. 

Price's ideals also line up with those of the Woodford Folk Festival's 500 year plan. He states "Such a building need never reach completion; it would instead become a process of endless chance. 'Inbuilt flexibility or it's alternative, planned obsolesce, can be satisfactorily achieved only if the time factor is included as an absolute factor in the total design process."  Winters, E., 2007. Politics and the Situationist International. in. Aesthetics and architecture, London ; New York: Continuum. pp92-98

The Woodford 500 Year Plan states "We’ll cultivate a convention of decision making, strengthening through time, that will resonate in our work and nurture our future.... We will build with the eyes of artists. We’ll provide space for our descendants to meet the challenges of their generations with vigor, courage and imagination and encourage them to celebrate their journeys with levity and frivolity." Woodford Folk Festival 500 Year Plan

Both visions make a moral decision to remain flexible and sustainable in their built form well into the distant future. The visions both show total disregard for the now and project well into the future. 

This to me is one of the fundamental flaws with the current politicians and planners,they plan for the next election or purely for profits and monetary gains. Planners and decision makers need to plan and project well into the distant future, somewhere in the vicinity of 50-100 years, a lot can change, but a lot also needs to happen if we want the world we love to still be here when we get there.