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Urban Expendabilia is derived from the idea that the architecture of a city is influenced by the collision of expendability and scarcity. The practice of designing and constructing buildings is an assimilation of contradictions (Parnell, 2012). For instance, our ‘throwaway society’ specifies, and fixates on, the need for new finishes, details and products. Yet this leaves architects and designers struggling to obtain the minimal environmental impact that we should value deeply, but so often choose to ignore. Balancing the aesthetic design of a building with its functional performance is an issue on the forefront of the architectural profession, and this critical perspective aims to capture, and contrast, an opposing side to our superfluous consumer culture.

There is a focus on the importance of durability and increasingly longer life spans in the realm of architecture and design (Page, 2014). Due to the “dependence on an economy and consumerist society that demand the exploitation of resources” (Parnell, 2012), expendable architecture and design has now become common practice. In observations made during my flânerie around my city, I noticed a vast range of broken, neglected, and rundown structural elements. This contrasts with our societal structure that continues to endorse the immediate replacement or repair of products that are no longer brand new, or in full working order. However, the state of these structures is only temporary. In time, they will be replaced, renewed and overtaken by our desire for what is most recent and innovative.

References

Parnell, S. (2012), The Collision of Scarcity and Expendability in Architectural Culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Archit Design, 82: 130–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ad.1443

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