Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Barack Obama's Presidential Library
Architecture
As an introduction to my participation in this blog, I must first say that I have not had the existential struggle of discovering what profession/purpose that I am to fill in life. I did not need to find it because architecture found me. I feel very fortunate that had happened at an early age and it has thus allowed me to contemplate what my role in the world of architecture may be in the future.
Although I do not know how I will fulfill that role in the ever-changing environment of architectural design, or even what architecture may entail at the end of the next decade, I will begin by starting to present a series of ideas. Some will reflect on the strengths of architecture and the design of our environment; while others will begin to critique and evaluate post-modern architectural culture (yes, post-modernism is more than Philip Johnson and Aldo Rossi). Eventually, I hope that these observations and essays will help lead me to the formation of my definition or conception of architecture.
Food and Architecture
Despite the semblance of little or no relation between Kathryn's and my topics of interest, we have found that there are a number of correlations between the two that do not exist between other staples of human civilization.
First and foremost, food and architecture are necessary.
Civilizations may be able to sustain themselves by feeding on mediocre cuisine and living in shelters; however, great food and spectacular architectures are the hallmarks of history's greatest civilizations. Perhaps food and architecture are the standards by which cultures are measured, even before the other arts and sciences .
I want to design Barack Obama's Presidential Library
In closing, I will begin. Begin by thinking about what may be one of the future great cultural institutions of this country, the Presidential Library of Barack Obama. If "hope" and "change" win this November and the following eight years become a glorious rejuvenation of the United States, how can that process and presidency be commemorated architecturally? Maybe it shouldn't and instead the library will instead speak to the future that follows Obama.
Either way, a spirit must inhabit the design. And perhaps that is what architecture needs now and what I have been looking for in architecture today.
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