Do you know that when I was visiting Paris with my class over spring break during my junior year in high school, when I stepped out of the subway into the thick of Paris, the feeling of the place hit me like a shockwave. It was like columns of stereo speakers were blaring this into my head:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
I loved that feeling. If my home town could only rise to that level, I'd be deeply satisfied.
But what is my ultimate, wildest dream? It's to walk through a city with that sort of historical richness that tells you, instinctually, where you are in history and where you are going, and with that sort of monumental, public citizenry-feel to it, but...a thoroughly modern version of that. Paris was modern for the 19th century. Paris was basically the world capital of the 19th century. The only slight problem is, it's *still* the world capital of the 19th century. And here we are in the 21st.
So what I'd like is everything that I've just described, but instead of feeling Beethoven's 5th throbbing through your body as you walk down the street, you feel a mix of Immortal Technique (minus the homophobia and misogyny), Ill Bill, Sabaton, and Nightwish throbbing through you. Thoroughly modern music to fit thoroughly modern institutions, architecture, political/economic systems, and culture. Naturally, the military parades, in order to be truly modern, could only be fittingly accompanied by the Red Alert 3 Hell March:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cenim1nTWg
If your Nation is not marching to that tune, your Nation is not modern.
As far as architecture is concerned, existing skyscraper cities don't quite cut it for me because, although they are modern, they lack a public sphere. Each building harbors a private, exclusive establishment and nothing else. The tinted windows shut you out and consciously turn you away. They are more like fortresses or compounds than places of civic, public space. (Aside from the tinted windows, though, many of those buildings are fine as they are. We just need to make them functionally public by democratizing and throwing open to the public view and public interference what goes on inside.) Same with Wal-Mart. Same with gated communities and other types of housing in the U.S. I feel like it's all going down the wrong path in the vast majority of the U.S. And China looks like it wants to emulate much of our architecture and society in general...check out:
http://commons.wikimedia.o
"'Orange County, China' refers to a 60 million dollar, 143-unit housing development situated about one hour north of Beijing, China, comprised entirely of expensive American-style townhouses and tract homes, decorated and furnished with American products. The Chinese developer Zhang Bo built the community to anticipate the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing. All 143 units were sold within a month of going on sale, in a phenomenon the Beijing media called "The Orange Storm." Designed by architect Aram Bassenian, who authentically hails from Newport Beach, California in Orange County, California, the Orange County development is an example of wealthy Chinese literally adopting the suburban American lifestyle."
Oh god....
We've got to come up with a more attractive alternative, or this architectural/societal virus will continue to spread over the entire earth.
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