<- click hereWhen you envision the future world of say 2067 - do you leave room for homes like this? In your dreams of times to come, is everything crystal, plasma, shimmering, and chrome? Will that place have razed everything that came before it?
Will it sit upon a mound of bulldozed under carcasses of oddly charming, but presently decaying relics that embody the dreams of a string of generations? Will the tractor beam of suburban MacMansions guarantee city developers a freedom to knock down everything urban to make way for city buildings that will compete for people with sufficient income that they can afford to pay the taxes that will restore those cities?
But should that happen... then what will happen to storybook homes like this? Does it have a spot, a place, a justification for living anywhere outside of a museum in your dreams of the future?
GEEK STUFF: Canon EOS 20D, 09/21/07:5:38 pm: Lens 17-85mm, Focal Length: 17mm, Exp 1/125@f/8, ISO 400, Metering Mode: pattern, Expoure bias -1, Camera RAW
3 comments:
I fear that there won't be any place for buildings like this in the future. It's already happened with the automobile - "crystal, plasma, shimmering, and chrome" pretty much describes them all doesn't it? And I'll add one more adjective to the list, homogeneous.
I don't know about your neck of the woods but have you noticed those new subdivisions, usually in close proximity to the super highways, that are made up of several hundred identical dwellings? I can't help but shudder every time I pass one. And I wonder, who lives in those houses? Have they too lost any semblance of uniqueness? Better stop there, I'm getting depressed.
Your image, on the other hand, lifts my spirits. Love the treatment which has made it larger than life and loaded with character.
Ted,
that's probably the most important reason for liking your blog ...
Yes, of course, the images! They are brilliant and so is your post-processing, but you're not alone with that.
What you do, and what nobody else does (can?), is providing the visitor with fresh and provoking thought.
So now, what is it? Will there be place for buildings like this?
Yes. There will be. It is one of the most blatant failures of science fiction, that it invariably fails to predict the persistence of the past's artifacts. And this is interesting. You, Ted, are about to enter Rome in very short time, and I am sure that, as soon as you're there, you'll recognize, that Rome, unlike every other city in the world, embodies the principle of concurrency to utmost perfection. Wherever you go, you see artifacts from 2000 years, side by side, just as if everything else would be unnatural.
In this respect Rome may be unique, but the principle applies everywhere. New fashions and new technologies may be introduced, but they don't completely replace the past. Of course houses like this won't vanish, but they will become rare. If you have one, if you like it, don't sell it. Its value will fall, but it may take only 100 years to rise again. You'll manage to wait as long, won't you?
(Bill & Andreas)... Hmmm... I think Andreas wins on this one Bill. when I was a child.... long long ago and far far away... I recall my beloved aunt Natalie taking me on visits from Philadelphia to New York City. Like downtown Philly, Manhattan was overwhelming, and more. Yet... yet... As I come out of the tunnel into Metropolis today I'm struck not so much with a glimmering skyline (I'm too close to see it) but of the re-commissioned buildings which have always lined that cavern of the city's front door. Look at some of my recent NYC pics.... by clicking here. Of course there's crystal, glitter, and chrome. But look lower... Look at the street buildings. The fill-in buildings. They go back a century and a half.
Now in America we lack the flotsam and jetsam of considerable antiquity which Olde Country folk find so normal. Last friday I had dinner with friends who recently visited with British people who lived in a home with a Norman Kitchen and a Viking barn!
Yes... yes... Concurrency is a wonderful word. And I don't think that the preservation is necessarily a political thing. Rather it is economic necessity... Since you cannot replace everything at once, you do it in stages leaving behind things which turn out to be indispensable.
The only question really is what will be left behind. That is a gambler's question, and I cannot predict the odds on the home I idealized in this post. Can you?
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