I guess one can only draw from what one has seen to project into the future. With me it was art history. They tried to teach that the Greeks were the main thrust of civilization. Then a remedial English class, the subject, "the utopian novel." These were the two threads, a material culture exemplified by architecture, then how a society was meshed with it. We are conned to think these strains are evolving. Society has improved, fell back, improved, sided off, come back, not changed. Architecture has changed with the glaciers, very slow. Then, we all are stuck with structures (the ones we live in) till we die. Corporate buildings may look like spaceships but the humble home looks like Paul Revere lives here. We are lost in home recycling, flipping, rehab, remodel, retro and don't let me go off on building codes. Incremental advancement by adding on to lingering presidents. Architecture to glorify what has become of the Greek strain. Not me? Huh! What kind of columns hold up your porch? Probably the same as the ones holding up the courthouse, hmmmmmmm!
Reality smacks hard, how many Black Architects can you think of? What of the buildings they built? Do they show off the ingenuity of a Black civilization or are they an add on to the Greek matrix? Paul Williams was the Hollywood man in the 30's - 50's, he was very, very advanced. I myself met the Madison brothers, Julian and Robert, in the Ohio area. They are heroes to me.
Back to the future, the humble implements of a material culture for us is summed up in the stuff we own as we move from place to place. I have moved many times. Even when I bought a home the thought was this is temporary, not really mine. I did not design this or build this. You see I lived also in the home my grandparents built. They had this way of ignoring the shortcomings of what they had done. They knew all the corners and the squeaks and quirks. It suited them. My life there was fix and repair and finally the bulldozer. The developers fixed up the old hood. It looks like any suburb in Ohio......same old.
If a fancy custom home is built it is an anomaly, but what if that were the standard and the whole neighbourhood was that way. Who would be bold enough, (probably wealthy enough), to forsake the past to embrace the future in reality, a material culture. First one on your block to buy a greenish car, good luck! You oddball whacko bag recycling ingredient reader. Hey fool compost this!! This is changing.
As I said before, towers of glass and steel pale to the potential of the steel shanty towns. Because it is a peoples architecture on a human scale, it's honest. Add to this the quonset barns and cargo containers. Who doesn't want to turn a rustic barn into a home or is not awed by the space within an aircraft hanger. Our first words are usually is it safe in a storm, does the wind seep through? We see the container's insides and go hummm, I wonder.
So in the spirit of the utopian novel, what if we give up the gabled roof, wood constructs and reminders of a romantic past for adventure of a new material culture? Not so much mix of old and new? What kind of people will we become if we embrace the future?
I see the picture of a modular home factory (lots of wood working tools), building a standard wood house. Flip to the modern car factory with robot welders, imagine them building modular home units instead of cars. What an industry and the variety of options available all ready to be welded onto the frame in factory or on site. Deco skins, thermo skins, solar skins, stiff and flexible, neutral and colored and panels able to take a bullet or a sonic blast. Strong as steel yet supple as tissue. What about decor, folks still need rest, whither sleep or stasis, standing or planking. You turn on your GPS to set your destination and your neural-net displacement generator (the geeko zombi unit, $19.95) puts your mind to rest, yet your feet walks or jogs till you get there. Talk about sleep walking! No need to ask how I got here, also great for sleep learning.....! Protection, the matrix app will have you master martial arts while in the zombi state. The jump suit has detachable sleeves, trouser leggings and hoodie, has full kevlar micro-mesh and sonics to keep away predators. If the zombi state persists beyond the units up time, you are having a near death experience, see your doctor immediately.
The future, you write but also it is foretelling of a possible material culture. This is the stuff of sci-fi. Madame Walker invented the straightener and then the wave maker, that's a metaphor...makes your hair stand on end, lol.......
