Comments on: Gradual Calamity http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/ Cyborgs, architects and our weird broken future. Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:37:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: chrisarkenberg http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1523 chrisarkenberg Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:44:09 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1523 In Bangkok, I noted many very tall and very empty skeletal hotels, washed and ossified and streaked with their own slow undoing. Hauntingly beautiful to a fellow architecture (and apocalyptica) buff like myself. On the ground level, as you note, the city persists with constant effort against the ever-encroaching jungle. Everything is in a suspended state of erosion and rot - a design pattern that reflects across much of the urban landscape, always seemingly in motion, lashing re-used goods to trucks and skiffs and tenements, as if keeping it all from washing away in the Chao Phraya or being resorbed by the creeping liana. In Bangkok, I noted many very tall and very empty skeletal hotels, washed and ossified and streaked with their own slow undoing. Hauntingly beautiful to a fellow architecture (and apocalyptica) buff like myself. On the ground level, as you note, the city persists with constant effort against the ever-encroaching jungle. Everything is in a suspended state of erosion and rot — a design pattern that reflects across much of the urban landscape, always seemingly in motion, lashing re-used goods to trucks and skiffs and tenements, as if keeping it all from washing away in the Chao Phraya or being resorbed by the creeping liana.

]]> By: chrisarkenberg http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1454 chrisarkenberg Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:44:09 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1454 In Bangkok, I noted many very tall and very empty skeletal hotels, washed and ossified and streaked with their own slow undoing. Hauntingly beautiful to a fellow architecture (and apocalyptica) buff like myself. On the ground level, as you note, the city persists with constant effort against the ever-encroaching jungle. Everything is in a suspended state of erosion and rot - a design pattern that reflects across much of the urban landscape, always seemingly in motion, lashing re-used goods to trucks and skiffs and tenements, as if keeping it all from washing away in the Chao Phraya or being resorbed by the creeping liana. In Bangkok, I noted many very tall and very empty skeletal hotels, washed and ossified and streaked with their own slow undoing. Hauntingly beautiful to a fellow architecture (and apocalyptica) buff like myself. On the ground level, as you note, the city persists with constant effort against the ever-encroaching jungle. Everything is in a suspended state of erosion and rot — a design pattern that reflects across much of the urban landscape, always seemingly in motion, lashing re-used goods to trucks and skiffs and tenements, as if keeping it all from washing away in the Chao Phraya or being resorbed by the creeping liana.

]]> By: Tim Maly http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1452 Tim Maly Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:38:03 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1452 Picking how long to call the decline of the Roman Empire is necessarily an exercise in arbitrariness. On the one hand, you've got the Eastern Empire which is going strong until the 1400s. On the other hand, you've got people like Cicero and, you know, everyone who's a conservative claiming that things used to be better in the old days.<br><br>The dates I picked were the Wikipedian consensus (for what that's worth) running from the zenith of Rome under Julius Caesar to the arrival of Odoacer in the 470s.<br><br>The main point is that it took a really long time. It took Rome longer to fall than it took the British Empire to rise and fall again. Picking how long to call the decline of the Roman Empire is necessarily an exercise in arbitrariness. On the one hand, you’ve got the Eastern Empire which is going strong until the 1400s. On the other hand, you’ve got people like Cicero and, you know, everyone who’s a conservative claiming that things used to be better in the old days.

The dates I picked were the Wikipedian consensus (for what that’s worth) running from the zenith of Rome under Julius Caesar to the arrival of Odoacer in the 470s.

The main point is that it took a really long time. It took Rome longer to fall than it took the British Empire to rise and fall again.

]]> By: Monday tab dump « Snarkmarket http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1451 Monday tab dump « Snarkmarket Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:26:40 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1451 [...] At least the BOF that does more than coast on the fake rev­e­la­tion of jux­ta­po­si­tion. Tim Maly pulls it off here. “Grad­ual [...] […] At least the BOF that does more than coast on the fake rev­e­la­tion of jux­ta­po­si­tion. Tim Maly pulls it off here. “Grad­ual […]

]]> By: Martin McG http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1450 Martin McG Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:23:13 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1450 Really interesting piece...<br><br>"The decline of the Roman Empire took 320 years. That’s 12 generations of people. Did each generation say that things used to be better in the old days? They were right, I suppose."<br><br>Actually the Romans were going on about declining standards for far more than 320 years - Cicero made a career out of complaining about declining standards in the first century BCE - and he eas hardly the first. Really interesting piece…

“The decline of the Roman Empire took 320 years. That’s 12 generations of people. Did each generation say that things used to be better in the old days? They were right, I suppose.”

Actually the Romans were going on about declining standards for far more than 320 years — Cicero made a career out of complaining about declining standards in the first century BCE — and he eas hardly the first.

]]> By: Gradual Calamity | myninjaplease http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1449 Gradual Calamity | myninjaplease Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:23:58 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1449 [...] .:quietbabylon.com-> Share this: [...] […] .:quietbabylon.com-> Share this: […]

]]> By: And Scene…) « Terrace Agenda http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1448 And Scene…) « Terrace Agenda Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:51:20 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1448 [...] More things falling down and falling apart.  I can’t say why just yet, but for some reason I really like this stuff.  It’s comforting, in a way. [...] […] More things falling down and falling apart.  I can’t say why just yet, but for some reason I really like this stuff.  It’s comforting, in a way. […]

]]> By: Adam http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1447 Adam Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:13:36 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1447 How do we know that ruins ever were "finished" buildings?<br><br>How do we know that present day squelette-ready sites are not "finished" buildings?<br><br>Is a building always in a state of building, and a ruin always in a state of ruination? <br><br>What ruins a building, and what builds a building?<br><br>What builds a ruin, and what ruins a ruin?<br><br>What is the qualification for "abandoned"?<br><br>Is the purpose of a building to be used for the purpose it was designed for?<br><br>Is any building abandoned by its owner, at any stage in its building/use, qualification to be a failed building?<br><br>Are ruins purposeless? Who owns ruins? Do ruins suit these new tenants?<br><br>Buildings hold purposes, ruins hold questions and secrets. Or is it the other way around? How do we know that ruins ever were “finished” buildings?

How do we know that present day squelette-ready sites are not “finished” buildings?

Is a building always in a state of building, and a ruin always in a state of ruination?

What ruins a building, and what builds a building?

What builds a ruin, and what ruins a ruin?

What is the qualification for “abandoned”?

Is the purpose of a building to be used for the purpose it was designed for?

Is any building abandoned by its owner, at any stage in its building/use, qualification to be a failed building?

Are ruins purposeless? Who owns ruins? Do ruins suit these new tenants?

Buildings hold purposes, ruins hold questions and secrets. Or is it the other way around?

]]> By: Ancient Intelligence | TheoRadical http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1446 Ancient Intelligence | TheoRadical Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:19:23 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1446 [...] Ancient Intelligence Posted: Friday Jan 8th | Author: JohnO | Filed under: Anthropology | There is a possibly apocryphal story about a conversation on the subject of the solar system between Wittgenstein and a student. Wittgenstein asks the student why early people thought that the sun went around the earth. The student says that it’s because it looks that way. Wittgenstein asks, “And how would it look if the earth went around the sun?” Gradual Calamity [...] […] Ancient Intelligence Posted: Friday Jan 8th | Author: JohnO | Filed under: Anthropology | There is a possibly apocryphal story about a conversation on the subject of the solar system between Wittgenstein and a student. Wittgenstein asks the student why early people thought that the sun went around the earth. The student says that it’s because it looks that way. Wittgenstein asks, “And how would it look if the earth went around the sun?” Gradual Calamity […]

]]> By: ruins, colosseums, squelettes - mammoth // building nothing out of something http://quietbabylon.com/2010/gradual-calamity/comment-page-1/#comment-1445 ruins, colosseums, squelettes - mammoth // building nothing out of something Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:27:54 +0000 http://quietbabylon.com/?p=1524#comment-1445 [...] Quiet Babylon’s recent post on the slow production of ruins, scrubbing post-boom projects from architectural portfolios, [...] […] Quiet Babylon’s recent post on the slow production of ruins, scrubbing post-boom projects from architectural portfolios, […]

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