infrastructure

Stand Allen starts his argument by comparing three images dating over 70 years back. A massive aircraft carrier, a big cruise ship, and a big airplane factory; all of them huge projects and were the biggest products of their time period. A common factor was that they all represented a new way of constructing things at a massive scale by utilizing new technologies, but still maintaining a connection between the aesthetic looks and the functionality. He says that it is not coincidence that urban infrastructure experienced a massive defunding around the time that postmodernism began to emerge. He partially blames the architects for allowing the bureaucrats and the politicians to forget about infrastructure and basically stop funding big and important projects like: highways, railroads, water supplies, mass transit and many more. All the sudden architects became more interested on designing at a smaller scale, almost forgetting about infrastructure and concentrating more on designing individual buildings, without taking in consideration the relationship with the larger scale.
He also states that architecture has recently shifted towards the practice of infrastructure, and that architects now have the chance to shape the future and the structure of the future cities. Infrastructure is an important aspect of architecture, and it allows the architect to connect the building and the design with the land. It provides a system in which architecture connects with all the aspects of the city, from the mass transportation, to the basic services like energy, water and communication. It is something more precise and more detailed than a master plan, it is the ground in which a city is built on, and it prepares the ground for future buildings and it creates conditions for the future events. Infrastructure is very flexible to the evolving changes in society, it slowly adapts to the shifting conditions, and is always evolving within a loose envelope of constrains. Infrastructure also serves as a canvas for many architects with different styles; it allows them to freely create and design their buildings, but it also sets technical and instrumental limits to their work. It also forces the architect to move away from self reference and individual expression, and encourages him to move towards collective enunciation. In a way infrastructure is like a natural system that has a life, and it depends of a series of activities. They manage the flow of resources on a site, and it is constantly adjusting to the habitat’s needs, and the needs of the environment. By taking into account the infrastructure of a city, the architect can design his building, and still have a connection to the site and to the surrounding buildings.