{"id":5361,"date":"2016-09-23T01:36:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T01:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/?p=5361"},"modified":"2017-02-04T01:57:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T01:57:22","slug":"amazonia-pier-manufacturing-an-architecture-of-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/amazonia-pier-manufacturing-an-architecture-of-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazonia Pier; Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have recently been chatting with graduate and all round legend,\u00a0Julien Nolin. I came across his amazing portfolio<\/a> and wanted to share one of his projects entitled Amazonia Pier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Come experience the Amazon Without going into the Amazon!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The wonders of the Amazon, may not be what you would expect. It might come as a surprise to know\u00a0that in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, lies a metropolis of over 2 million people. A city who owes its\u00a0survival to a Free Trade Zone, who\u2019s strong industrial presence in the rainforest goes far beyond self- sufficiency,\u00a0but has deep ties to the surrounding region, the country, and its international relations.<\/p>\n

Amazonia Pier is a phantasmagorical critique of the Free Trade Zone of Manaus, proposing a\u00a0speculative reinterpretation of the Zone’s industrial belt into a pier of pleasure, and forming a new\u00a0industrial park at the city\u2019s central harbour, hybridizing the mechanical manufacturing processes of\u00a0industry with the mechanics of amusement rides, juxtaposing themes of consumerism, manufacturing,\u00a0tourism and pleasure.<\/p>\n

Pleasure piers today are reminiscent of a older era. Where they gained massive popularity alongside\u00a0larger societal tensions such as industrialisation, immigration and rapid urbanisation, piers and parks of\u00a0pleasure accommodated a rising demand for leisure, for escape. They\u2019re ultimate demise came about\u00a0as their novelty ran out with time, the veil, lifted over their implied sense of pleasure, and the gimmick\u00a0was revealed.<\/p>\n

Today, an understanding of these amusement parks as a cheap thrill prevails, and provide\u00a0the lens of subversion through which the industrial park of Manaus is to be exhibited. Jutting out from\u00a0the edge of the city with sardonic pride, the pier stands over the Rio Negro, reacquainting the city with\u00a0its dismissed artery. On an unfamiliar landing stage, to which length will the \u2018city in the jungle\u2019 venture to\u00a0dazzle its patrons in the bizarre spectacle of a manufacturing of pleasure?<\/a>Click Image or click here to enlarge<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazonia Pier challenges the consumer\u2019s relationship to the goods he or she consumes through the use\u00a0of technology. On the one hand through the intimate experience with the production processes by\u00a0engaging them in a visceral way, and on the other through its larger role within its context, here being\u00a0the Amazon Rainforest.<\/p>\n

This process of bringing consumers closer to the process of making, had to be simplified, reduced,\u00a0sugar coated, into something the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard calls a \u201creduction of complexity\u201d\u00a0which arrises out a lack of understanding of a new paradigm which is replacing an old one that is\u00a0dying. And it is this misunderstanding and alienation that drives the park in a way. Baudrillard describes a desire for experience, a curiosity for the genuine, the authentic, stemming from this deficit of\u00a0experience that our lack of comprehension of todays technology creates.<\/p>\n

Our craving for the real, being alienated from it, drives us to things like eco tourism, which is a sort of\u00a0simulated experience , an almost \u201csynthetic tourism\u201d, tourism which is extremely controlled in what is\u00a0experienced. Yet maybe the better term here is simulated tourism. A tightly framed window onto parts\u00a0of the world we know little about. and that framing may be deliberate both on the ones who frame our\u00a0view, and deliberate on our end, however aware of it we may be.<\/p>\n

All in all, the patrons, perhaps, leave more alienated than when they arrived yet they\u2019re satisfied. The\u00a0pleasure and escape they sought having been achieved, their thirst for the \u201creal\u201d Amazon having been\u00a0quenched. They have played their role and have gotten their reward, yet, what of the cogs in the\u00a0machine that keep this reality afloat, of the people working in the shadow of the commodity machine\u00a0you helped feed.<\/p>\n

For as long as the desire for a genuine experience stays within the confines of the tight frame put\u00a0around reality, and as long as we chose a simulated reality over an honest one, the Ferris Wheel will\u00a0keep turning and Amazonia Pier will continue to dazzle the masses.
\n\"amazonia-pier-julien-nolin-castle\"<\/p>\n

You can learn more about Julien or get in touch\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have recently been chatting with graduate and all round legend,\u00a0Julien Nolin. I came across his amazing portfolio and wanted to share one of his projects entitled Amazonia Pier. “Come experience the Amazon Without going into the Amazon!\u201d The wonders of the Amazon, may not be what you would expect. It might come as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5361"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5391,"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions\/5391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archi-ninja.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}