ARCH-4980.6 | Chris Perry, Assistant Professor

Machines of Change

JOSEPH HINES

Feeding on the social and cultural landscapes of the 1950’s and 60’s architects of the post war period looked beyond preconceived disciplinary boundaries in an effort to extract intelligence from the ever-growing fields of science and technology. The Archigram group in particular remains to be an exemplary example of such a condition, in that their forward thinking speculative works served as an indexical machine of the post war era.  Rooted within the context of post war thought, notions of obsolescence, expendability and temporality served as thematic motivations for a body of work that looked to provoke the discipline.

Throughout time, designers have been challenged with the implications of emerging sciences and technologies. Infrastructural and industrial networks that of which are heavily influenced by societal and economic conditions operate within a cyclical pattern of development, constantly inventing new needs and solutions. Thus insinuating that within the context of the Hudson River Valley, the Hudson River itself served as a one of the earliest and most primitive industrial machines. With this operational logic in place, the reflexive tendencies embedded in networks of infrastructure and developmental trends within the region suggest that a corridor of high-speed rail lines and nodes of high tech industrial incubators are a logical progression of development within a region faced with economic depravity and a population exodus.

No longer is the “technopolis”, bounded by physical extents of the city. Facilitated by the introduction of high-speed rail and emerging communication technologies the technopole of the near future physical extends itself into the existing urban fabric. Reaching out into the city through a vast network of nodes and linkages promoting the exchange of people, ideas and goods at the breakneck speeds reminiscent of the very high-speed rail, which fuels the region. As the technpole moves through the city, the urban landscape of post war artifacts is reconfigured over time. Whereas facades become platforms from integrated research, groundscapes become community interfaces and the city itself becomes a expansive conduit of resource sequestration, research and collective inventiveness.