america's saddest and happiest cities
http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2011/12/01/americas-saddest-cities/?tsp=1#1971-5
The Central Chinese Television Tower – “Big Underpants” or “Hemorrhoids”?
The Central Chinese Television Tower – “Big Underpants” or “Hemorrhoids”?
Although this mostly relates to our discussion earlier in the semester about high modernism, the CCTV Tower in Beijing, China has come to mind on numerous occasions during our class presentations. It wasn’t until I did some searching online when I learned that the official name of the tower is Zhongyang dianshi tai zongbu dalou (Central Television Station General Headquarters). I had come to know the building as the da kucha’r, or “big underpants.”
The “Big Underpants” was completed in 2009 by architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren. I remember passing by the giant building on a bus while it was under construction in 2007, thinking that it was the strangest looking building I had ever seen. It was then when a friend riding with me on the bus told me, “Oh yeah, we call it the da kucha’r. I don’t know what the actual name of it is, though.”
As this TIME blog article points out, nicknaming is very common in Chinese society. Nearly everybody has at least one nickname, if not a few, given by family, friends, and colleagues. This is also the case for iconic structures such as the National Center for the Performing Arts, which looks like a giant egg and the Olympic Stadium that resembles a bird’s nest.
Of course, the people at CCTV are unhappy with their headquarters’ nickname and have been trying to promote alternative names. One possibility was the “Wisdom Window,” but that could easily turn into yet another humorous nickname of “hemorrhoids,” which are both pronounced zhichuang.
The author of this article, Austin Ramzy, makes an interesting connection to Confucius’s famous saying about the “rectification of names.” Basically, according to the Great Sage, we should call things what they really are. The Daoists, especially Zhuangzi, might argue that coming up with terminology to distinguish between countless different things only leads to confusion.
It never occurred to me that this kind of nicknaming could be an effective means of expressing public support or protest against an act of founding, such as that of the CCTV Tower. How does this nicknaming phenomenon fit in with founding and preservation? Do we see this happening in other societies? What are the effects?
P.S.: The tower mysteriously caught on fire in 2009 during the Chinese New Year, which stirred up a great deal of controversy. There are some interesting pictures and information on this website:
http://www.chinasmack.com/2009/pictures/beijing-cctv-building-on-fire-news-censored.html
Sense of Place in my neighborhood
My neighborhood is an interesting area of town, my house and a few others sit in an area nestled between two large nursing home complexes. Across the street is a development for homeowners 55 and older. While these developments have been said to improve property values in the area, I personally think they completely take away the neighborhood atmosphere that I once enjoyed and still see many other areas of town enjoying.
A year or two back my neighbors petitioned for the right to add an inlaw apartment to their home, which would allow them to split their lot and to get tax benefits as well. Well when this happened the whole neighborhood, starting with my Dad, stood up in opposition due to the way the addition would somehow decrease our property values. Though this was true, and while I do remember there being opposition to the nursing homes, I find it interesting that the town quickly stopped my neighbors from adding on. While I know property value is important, I would much rather have a nice neighborhood with neighbors who aren't bitter than one with three nursing home areas. It shows how use value vs. exchange value comes into play, and how exchange value usually seems to trump the latter.
Syracuse Murals
http://lovelettertosyracuse.com/
I recently stumbled across this site about an artist named Stephen Powers who combines his own flair with his love for signs and grafitti to make large murals. This site describes his recent project in Syracuse. In the first video on the site, the artist discusses his intentions to try to bridge the two neighborhoods that have been isolated from each other for years by train overpasses that no longer provide as significant of a use as they did when Syracuse was shipping an abundance of manufactured goods out of the city. The artist builds off the historical assets of the space as a way of redefining it. He incorporated the community and their sentiments toward their home in designing his artwork. The artist says, "these painted bridges represent what I believe is the future of Syracuse; Taking what has value and remaking it for the future, in a way that respects tradition and innovation."
We have discussed the way that roads, highways, industry, and other types of land use can fracture and isolate neighborhoods (and are sometimes intentionally prescribed by governments to do so). Stephen Powers, however, sees these bridges as a place to bring a community together over shared values and shared love for their city. Additionally, he finds a way to honor the historical significance of his canvas (the overpasses), while updating it so that it fits the needs of the current population. In class we have discussed ideas of preservation and founding, sense of place, authenticity and connections to place, and ownership over place, all of which Powers draws into his artwork in Syracuse by involving the community's connection to their home.
Does artwork like this this seem like a practical and reasonable solution to bridging socially, culturally, and economically isolated neighborhoods? And could this be done other places? Is it enough to encourage interactions between a diverse group of people, or would city theorists like Jane Jacobs say this approach is not holistic enough to encourage diverse street life?
