Comments on: Anarchy and the Use of Disorder: A Sydney Perspective https://www.archi-ninja.com/anarchy-and-the-use-of-disorder/ Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:00:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.5 By: Jay https://www.archi-ninja.com/anarchy-and-the-use-of-disorder/#comment-70 Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:00:20 +0000 http://www.archi-ninja.com/?p=1093#comment-70 *Production of diagram that shows uneven economic income spread over the area
*architecture depends, till

Not having seen the rest of the thesis it’s hard to make comment from the excerpt (unless this is what you’ve written so far). I think the first thing to illustrate more clearly is how historical socio-economic trends in Sydney have occurred over say, the last 50 years and what the unequal spread is now. This I think would better facilitate the context of Newtown and King Street in particular with the rest of Sydney.

I would also consider different explanations to the socio-economic development of the area you live in. Attributing the area’s difference to the rest of Sydney by interpreting it through the anarchist tradition is arguably not shared by its residents (some aspects are embodied unconsciously). Could the term ‘effective disorder’, for example, be another way of recognising a different kind of order? One not determined through top down planning (in the Modernist tradition as you say), but rather organic development characterised by bottom up approaches from the different kinds of communities who inhabit the area, in addition to architectures that respond to contingency instead?

I believe it is also possible to present a taxonomy of architectures that actually show the ‘presence of social diversity, uniqueness, communal interaction and ‘otherness’. This can be achieved through careful documentation and perhaps even drawing up plans of spaces that actually encourage intimacy, human contact, etc.

If you are focusing particularly on this area, again as I suggested before it would be great to actually find out how different groups of people came to be in the area. Generally if an area is full of ethnic minorities for example, there will be reasons for why they congregated there in the first place.

If I may suggest two texts for your reading lists, you may find the following two useful:

Architecture Depends, Jeremy Till – Till’s basic thrust is that architecture must respond to contingency; the unplanned, the ‘real’.
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell – There is a particularly good chapter on how the top Jewish Laywers in NYC came from similar family backgrounds in a particular area in New York. Perhaps this could help you identify some very specific frames of reference to highlight your thesis.

Enjoy.

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