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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
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Posted at Feb 09/2009 10:03AM:
timothy simonds:
What I found most interesting about our discussion last week was our arguments over what Marc Augé called "non-places." According to Augé, these spaces that serve in travel/ transportation are non-places because of their ephemeral purpose. They bring people from one place to another without promoting any interaction.
Peter Cook of the early 20th century design group, Archigram, differentiated between serving spaces and served spaces. A Serving space are spaces that serve a buildings inhabitants or users like the spaces of an elevator, escalator, air vent, or electrical wiring. As functions for people, one could say that "the buildings" have authority over theses spaces. In contrast, served spaces are spaces that are open to the authority of the individual, such as gallery space or offices. Served spaces are not predetermined by the building, but have the potential of a wide variety of functions, alterable by an individual.
I find it interesting where the ideas of Peter Cook and Marc Augé collide. Peter Cook attempted to separate the serving and served spaces in his designs. Although none of Archigram's early concepts were built they were highly influential for architecture at the time. The Centre Pompidou in Paris is a prime example of this way of thinking. The escalators and over-dramatic air vents are on the outside of the building, encasing the inner, large, open gallery spaces on the inside. I would argue that Augé would call the serving spaces of the Pompidou non-places. Without prompting human interactions, and functioning as a portal from one place to the next, the individual looses authorship over the space and the architecture gains it.