The city of ruins - Lecture 5
Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude.
It is becoming a growing trend for people to take photos of decaying buildings, this is evident through the popular hashtag #urbex on instagram - suggesting that there is a certai appeal to abandoned buildings and ruins. We find it daring to sneak into places we aren’t allowed to enter, that feeling of adventure and adrenaline motivates people to do these things. Also another popular trending hashtag is #ruinporn, i guess ruins really are a popular trending thing, but why are they popular? why are people drawn to them?
Historical context and kitsch ruins:
Maybe ruins are popular because of tutorism, as many people enjoy seeing them from a historical point of you.
The fondness for ruins increased in the 17th century and 18th century.
Folly - using ruins as a form of decoration, meaning you’re purposely making/creating a building to look like a building for aesthetic purposes. The reason they used the word ‘folly’ was because it comes from the word ‘foolishness’ or, lack of good sense. But a folly can also be seen as a building providing reminders of the failings of the past.
The jealous wall - Belvedere house 1740:
It was a short marriage but the wife basically married her husbands brother , the wall was built to block the ex husbands view of their home. If ruins keep exs away then i’ll gladly participate in #ruinporn.
It’s strange how we find it normal for fish tanks to have model ruin civilisations in them - is this a reference to the lost city of Atlantis or do fish secretly want to be destroyers of worlds? But still isn’t it strange how ruins still appeal to us? They’re a reminder of the past and the future, thats pretty bizarre. eg: Planet of the apes (1968) ruins represent disaster and the end of the world.
The ruinous effect of urban planning:
New grand urban plans relied on ruins, as they were a reason to demonlish and reconstruct new buildings. Then those new buildings became ruins themselves, they’re a reminder of the old past dreams, a utopian dream of a new world. A reminder that they’re dream died and became the thing that they sought to destory is interesting.
Demolishing is popular:
The long river by Nadav Kander is like a ‘reverse ruin’, it’s half constructed ruins that, so it’s the a ruin in the sense that it’s falling apart but it’s also something thats just been constructed. Interesting, maybe the reverse ruin will trend on instagram?
