Demoliciónel agujero negro de la modernidad

Abstract

"Demolition: the black hole of modernity" proposes a new reading on the demolition or abandonment vs. conservation and restructuring of social housing projects in order to improve the intervention plans in complex environments. Considered complex, because they involve a challenging background that goes beyond architecture, and has more to do with racial, social, political, and economic prejudices. Therefore, it is a research on architectural projects but it is not limited to them. Through the social housing project Pruitt-Igoe built in 1954 and demolished in 1972, and the social housing project Robin Hood Gardens built in 1972 and planned for demolition in 2008, a period in which modern architecture is facing indiscriminate demolitions without reflecting on the social and environmental consequences is studied. Thus, modern architecture becomes kind of a "black hole". Why has modernity earned this nickname? Due to the fact that in the twentieth century several architects used the terminology of the field of Physics to justify their theories or proposals, in the XXI century, OMA exhibition for the Venice Biennale 2010, Cronocaos, called modern architecture as the "Black Hole”“ architecture. Its metaphorical relationship with the theory that bears the same name is a manifest of a period in which modern architecture is in a state in which its own theoretical construction and the idea of starting from scratch is creating voids in the cities. Is it a matter of Bad taste or rather a bad ideology?, reflects OMA. While a vast literature ensures that the failure of modern architecture is caused by its inability to create livable cities, others call not only for its preservation and restructuring, but also to regain its spirit of social experimentation. On this regard, the demystification that architecture (and its authors) can alone solve rooted issues of social structures has been raised. Likewise, the questioning of aesthetic value judgments, prejudices that lead to the decision of demolition and the role of the architect in the society are analyzed. The current state of modern social housing requires a critical attitude in the light of its important role in the consumer’s economy in which housing has become an object of consumerism that has forgotten the real needs of the "art of living".