With apologies to Aristotle, of course.
Yes, we may be social, even though sometimes some people tend to be anything but social, with eyes glued to the shiny screens in their hands, more often than not hooked into what is going on in - ironically - their social media following.
We may also be political, but sometimes what seem as massive failures of democracy worldwide similarly cast shadows into how beneficial the 'political' tag is to mankind.
What I think is true is that man is, more than anything else, a complex animal. And increasingly becoming so.
Take what I do for a living. I am concurrently working on 3 projects: 1 office building covering some 25,000m² and 2 residential developments (1 covering over 200,000m² including 3 towers and the other a single tower creating some 75,000m²).
Whenever I fill in my weekly time sheets, I am increasingly amazed at the sheer number of hours I put into each of these projects, and I am one member of fairly large design and construction teams across many disciplines, firms, offices and countries!
I ask: is it really required? Do we need to spend thousands of man-hours and hundreds of thousands of pounds (or Euros or whatever currency it may be) to create houses? Mankind has been living in some form of sheltered spaces for millennia. The basic requirements have not changed since the Neanderthals: all we need is a space to feed, fornicate and eventually sleep. Why then all the complexity and 'fighting' and arguing over millimetric discrepancies or differences? What distinguishes today's (or tomorrow's) homes from those of yesteryear? I was about to say "except that those of the past were more beautiful" but beauty is subjective and I happen to work with extremely talented people who can indeed create beautiful buildings. Beautiful but complex.
And then the offices. Why all the effort, time and money to design and build a structure which is typically used for only 33% of the time, to be left empty for the rest of the time (to occupy the houses for remaining 67% but sleep for 50% of that time, but that is another argument)? And what more, creating workspaces which are sedentary, leading to disease and unhealthy lifestyles. Why has the workspace become a desk and a screen? What was happening a mere 50 years ago? People did not go to work? What was happening 1000 years ago? Did people not work?
I think we need to step back from the complexity of the modern age and go back to basics. And stop creating massive buildings which are used only Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm and to remain empty for the rest of the time and then in parallel another suite of equally massive and intricate buildings for evening and night use only (and potentially weekends, unless people are away and/or out at the weekend, and rightly so).
By some twist of fate, I am listening to some Beatles playlist and Lennon's "Imagine" found its way in it; am I a dreamer, too? I do hope I am not the only one. Alas, I am just a simple structural engineer and what I am suggesting shakes the fundamentals not only of architecture and urbanism but probably of society at large.
Dream on. Aerosmith, anyone?
Friday 6 July 2018
Sunday 22 April 2018
What I did whilst awake in the city that never sleeps
I cannot say that I am a traveller - time and money do not permit - and neither can I say that I have travelled extensively, albeit I visited practically every European country and even ventured into North and South Africa. However, one big continent had been calling for quite some time and Easter 2018 proved to be a good opportunity to visit the country that has lured Europeans since 1492 (some argue even before that) and what better place to start if not the Big Apple?
NYC has always been a fantasy city for me. From those scenes in the first 'grown-up' movie I recall seeing in the mid 1980s i.e. "King Kong" (the 1976 de Laurentiis version, i.e.) where Kong scaled the Twin Towers instead of the Empire State Building in the 1933 version. Or being the fabled home of the Ninja Turtles during my early 1990s obsession with the heroes in a half shell. Or as the setting of "Home Alone 2" around the same time. And the countless movies featuring the city streets, Central Park and the yellow taxis. And later, as my love for buildings developed, as the home of some of the world's tallest and iconic buildings: the Empire, the Chrysler, Hearst, Seagram, Guggenheim and more.
Living in London gives wonderful opportunities to travel to virtually everywhere in the world and we decided without much difficulty to book a ticket to NYC during the Easter week. The trip started with a surprise upgrade to 'premium' economy on the outbound afternoon flight. We landed at JFK in the evening and immediately set off to our hotel at Canal Street in SoHo or South of Houston - I soon found out the Americans are obsessed with acronyms. I also noticed that American WCs operate in slightly different ways than European ones; this was never really highlighted in the movies!
As much as we are told not to judge books by their cover, I think that one can safely judge a new place by first impressions. It was immediately obvious that NYC does not invest heavily into its infrastructure as much as, say, London does. The subway was consistently dirty, trains are vintage by almost any standard and signage is not entirely foolproof. Same for pavements, streets and the urban environment in general. I guess my expectation was that NYC is to America what London is to Europe, but I was mistaken on this count.
What I was not mistaken was that NYC is the king (or queen?) of the high-rise. Yet, I never felt like I was walking in canyons or alleys. The classic sights - an inspiration for almost 2 decades - were, quite literally, highlights. We were lucky to have clear sunny daytime views from Top of the Rock and splendid night views of the lit gridiron city streets from the top of the Empire.
While history in the European sense of the word is virtually non-existent, the museums were another big tick in the "satisfied" box. Besides the Prado, I must say that I have been to the main European top galleries and museums and the Met and MoMa now sit amongst my greatest hits, even if compared with the bounty of London's freebies they do come at a considerable fee, albeit worth every penny. Sorry, cent.
Food: great choices, as expected in a very cosmopolitan place. Great dumplings, ramen, burgers and Katz's pastrami of course. The 15-20% tip came as a big surprise, even after a decade of 12.5% UK "discretionary" service charges.
The biggest surprise (and I was positively impressed by it) was the New Yorkers themselves. Not that I had a "bad" impression of Americans; I do work for an American firm after all and my boss(es) are indeed American. However, the level of friendliness, willingness to help and good manners, almost verging on shyness, were something I did not expect from a nation which is widely considered to be the world's ruling one. Comparing again to London, certainly there is much more warmth in the Big Apple!
One week went by quickly, even if the days were jam-packed from morning to night, averaging some 20km of walking every day and soon we rode away from Manhattan to JFK, to fly back to London and luckily arriving with no signs of jet-lag whatsoever.
My verdict: a visit to NYC is a must but in my view it is not a city for living. It is generally quite expensive (but probably OK with US salaries), hectic and tending towards filthy in some areas. If nature or Swiss precision is your thing, then probably it is a risky destination, but if the skyscraper is what turns you on, then in it you will find a slice of Nirvana. Having said that, I am not surprised that, besides Frankie's label as the city with perpetual insomnia, there is yet to be a Samuel Johnson style "tired of London, tired of life" equivalent for NYC, for London is still in my view the greatest city in the world. And hence this blog will remain "The streets of London".
NYC has always been a fantasy city for me. From those scenes in the first 'grown-up' movie I recall seeing in the mid 1980s i.e. "King Kong" (the 1976 de Laurentiis version, i.e.) where Kong scaled the Twin Towers instead of the Empire State Building in the 1933 version. Or being the fabled home of the Ninja Turtles during my early 1990s obsession with the heroes in a half shell. Or as the setting of "Home Alone 2" around the same time. And the countless movies featuring the city streets, Central Park and the yellow taxis. And later, as my love for buildings developed, as the home of some of the world's tallest and iconic buildings: the Empire, the Chrysler, Hearst, Seagram, Guggenheim and more.
Living in London gives wonderful opportunities to travel to virtually everywhere in the world and we decided without much difficulty to book a ticket to NYC during the Easter week. The trip started with a surprise upgrade to 'premium' economy on the outbound afternoon flight. We landed at JFK in the evening and immediately set off to our hotel at Canal Street in SoHo or South of Houston - I soon found out the Americans are obsessed with acronyms. I also noticed that American WCs operate in slightly different ways than European ones; this was never really highlighted in the movies!
As much as we are told not to judge books by their cover, I think that one can safely judge a new place by first impressions. It was immediately obvious that NYC does not invest heavily into its infrastructure as much as, say, London does. The subway was consistently dirty, trains are vintage by almost any standard and signage is not entirely foolproof. Same for pavements, streets and the urban environment in general. I guess my expectation was that NYC is to America what London is to Europe, but I was mistaken on this count.
What I was not mistaken was that NYC is the king (or queen?) of the high-rise. Yet, I never felt like I was walking in canyons or alleys. The classic sights - an inspiration for almost 2 decades - were, quite literally, highlights. We were lucky to have clear sunny daytime views from Top of the Rock and splendid night views of the lit gridiron city streets from the top of the Empire.
While history in the European sense of the word is virtually non-existent, the museums were another big tick in the "satisfied" box. Besides the Prado, I must say that I have been to the main European top galleries and museums and the Met and MoMa now sit amongst my greatest hits, even if compared with the bounty of London's freebies they do come at a considerable fee, albeit worth every penny. Sorry, cent.
Food: great choices, as expected in a very cosmopolitan place. Great dumplings, ramen, burgers and Katz's pastrami of course. The 15-20% tip came as a big surprise, even after a decade of 12.5% UK "discretionary" service charges.
The biggest surprise (and I was positively impressed by it) was the New Yorkers themselves. Not that I had a "bad" impression of Americans; I do work for an American firm after all and my boss(es) are indeed American. However, the level of friendliness, willingness to help and good manners, almost verging on shyness, were something I did not expect from a nation which is widely considered to be the world's ruling one. Comparing again to London, certainly there is much more warmth in the Big Apple!
One week went by quickly, even if the days were jam-packed from morning to night, averaging some 20km of walking every day and soon we rode away from Manhattan to JFK, to fly back to London and luckily arriving with no signs of jet-lag whatsoever.
My verdict: a visit to NYC is a must but in my view it is not a city for living. It is generally quite expensive (but probably OK with US salaries), hectic and tending towards filthy in some areas. If nature or Swiss precision is your thing, then probably it is a risky destination, but if the skyscraper is what turns you on, then in it you will find a slice of Nirvana. Having said that, I am not surprised that, besides Frankie's label as the city with perpetual insomnia, there is yet to be a Samuel Johnson style "tired of London, tired of life" equivalent for NYC, for London is still in my view the greatest city in the world. And hence this blog will remain "The streets of London".
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