Power Builds Power

I feel it is important to ask the question, is this a necessary worry for society or are we over thinking a not-fully-understood and patchy notion that our surrounding built environment has a bigger impact on society, as whole, than we imagine?

From my reading, I can gather that there is a huge emphasis and concern with how our built environment makes us think and act. I can gather and understand how ‘matter’ in a cityscape is seen as where the place and nature of ‘materials’ in society are used to figure out what is happening in the world that surrounds. I can even appreciate how Raymond Williams’ term ‘cultural materialist’ has made us realize how material cultures situate cultural materials that narrate a society. But I can not gather how it is acceptable for certain buildings to be a representation of the interests and power held by those with the power to build. Of course buildings should, and do, frame places, but not to the point where it becomes a competition to see who can build the biggest and most lavish building with pointless tassels and statues with marble this and teak that.

This ‘power builds power’ type of attitude is a typical aspect of urban architecture which resonates strongly with developments in modernity. All major World cities today are packed with daunting, colossal, powerful skyscrapers. Even today, with globalization, we see power exhibited everywhere in a similar ‘international style’. Monolithic in appearance, glass, steel, and concrete mega-structures dominate our cityscapes. Power in cities can be said to have it’s own global style. We are so comfortable with the idea that power builds power and poverty builds nothing. I feel that this is not right or fair, however, we live in a largely capitalist world and this will be an aspect of urban architecture that, I feel, will be here forever.

References:

“Material Culture”, D.P. Tolia Kelly, International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Pg 500-504

“Urban Architecture”, P. Kraftl, International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Pg 24-31

The Smallest Things Can Bring The Biggest Change

This blog entry will take a look at the enormous impact something as small as bacteria can have on major world cities. This blog entry aims to bring your attention to the qualities, conditions, and experiences of living in cities from the 17th-20th century.

A street-side vendor of cough lozenges and healing ointment in London in 1877. This is an example of the state of affairs. Prices would have set you back a penny to half-a-crown for a prescription of ointment with a box of lozenges costing a halfpenny and a penny for a packet.

‘London Street Doctor’ whose blindness was healed by the ointment he sells. Taken from the “Street Life of London” exhibition, link to original photo embedded.

Next, Samarkland in Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan) where we see a similar photo to the first in this blog entry, two street doctors in the early 20th century. The doctors have medical preparations and vials between them. The photographer used a special color photography process to visually record the 20th century Russian Empire.

Asian street doctors between 1909-1915. The photo was taken by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii on a photography trip of the Russian empire with permission from Tsar Nicholas the 2nd.

Exhibit of a costume that was worn by physicians attending plague patients in the 17th century. It consisted of a gown made from Moroccan leather with leather skirt, breeches, and boots all fitting into each other. The long beak-like nose was fitted with aromatic substances, commonly lavender.

Physician wearing 17th century plague preventive costume. Link to source embedded.

Public disinfectors doing their job in a highly contagious London city. They were brought in due to sanitary legislation in an attempt to lower the death rate of the city and make conditions safer to live in. In addition, the rise of Capitalism lead to a desire for clean open space and healthy workers, there was a general cultural desire to live a better life. Foucault labelled this as bio-politics.

Public Disinfectors in London, 1877. The two men in white clothes are hauling a carriage of disinfectant to hose down plague and disease infected areas.

Finally, to evoke compassion and understanding toward the poor conditions of cities in previous centuries, I provide you with the image of a dying man on the street, with nothing more than a passer-by to comfort him.

A custom of Central Asia, a passer-by tends to the sick in urban area, between 1865-1872.

All of this is evidence as to how something as small as bacteria can have such big impacts on  world cities.

The Public Space is a Market Place

Any definition of ‘modernity’ must be held accountable within the context of question. Here, in ancient Rome, ‘the Forum’ is an example of the use of public space that vastly influences later periods of modernity. This was a public space in which commerce, business, entertainment, the administration of justice, and even prostitution occurred. The Roman Forum, or Forum Romanum, was the central area of the ancient Roman city. It was designed by architect Vitruvius in AD203 and has proportions of 3:2 (length to width). The Roman Forum became the spectacular central showcase of the Roman Empire. Below is a map of ancient Rome with Forum Romanum visable slightly to the north of the Circus Maximus.

Engraved map of Ancient Rome, hand colored including 11 drawings of buildings. Map author: W.B Clarke. Published by Chapman & Hall. Atlas map height (31cm) width (40cm). To view original source of this map simply right click the image and click ‘open in new tab’.

This is simply one example of the many forums of Ancient Rome. This aspect of the ancient city was clearly of cultural importance for understanding the impact of the public space on the people’s visions of modernity.

Similar to the Roman forum, the ancient Greeks had ‘the agora’. This was a single place, like the forum, where education, politics, religion, arts, and athletics all came together. It was principally the core of ancient Greek society as the sacred and profane met here. However, these agoras were relegated to a more secular role with the introduction of the catholic church creating a gap between religious and commercial space. In the map below, one can see the Ancient Agora of Classical Athens located to the northwest of the ancient acroploe.

Map from 1908 details Athens’ cityscape. Original scale was 1:10’000. Link to source embedded in the image.

From these two examples, it is clear that public space has been a much desired area for people who wish to showcase everything and anything since ancient times. This architecture, in the form of town squares and meeting points, is an insight into the style of that day. We still live in cities that look like they do due to the way public space was used . To quote the architect and city planner Hans Blumenfeld;

“The social life of men is the specific side of nature that the city builder’s art reflects.”

Thanks for having a read, more on the historical geography of the city to come soon 🙂