W03 Reading

intriguing book extract


BEYOND  ARCHITECTURE 
INDETERMINACY,   
SYSTEMS,   
AND  THE  DISSOLUTION  OF  BUILDINGS



"Architects of  the future might not be concerned with enclosure
at all, or at least not built up enclosures. We could all be floating 
around in weatherproof space suits, taking "shots" for our feeding 
or any other physical or mental stimulus that we might require. 
Somewhere though there would still have to be a horizontal plane, 
demarked with neon lights if  you like, but in some way suggestive 
of  a place where we could work out our feelings of community."


The most  impassioned response  to Folkestone came in  Ruth 
Lakofski's "open letter," publ i shed as a chilling post script  to 
Middleton's digest. 


"The  new will not contain  houses,  nor yet the city hall. And I'm 
afraid the  new  romantic  "places"  with  their visual  barriers -
hoardings one year,  neon the ne x t -wi l l  fall quietly by the wayside . . . .  
Because just as surely as in  our new hypodermic world 
we can have our "shot" against the rain, so we can have our "shot" 
against contac t -al l  physical contact.  For we have the picturetelephone, 
the closed circuit telly,  and the schools of  the air.  No 
need to get together for the no-food food.  And when at last we 
have the no-sex s ex-a "shot" too perhaps in the dark-we  will 
have cut the natal cord and we shall be free."