Comments on: Feeling blue seeing red

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:54:22 +0000

Both Athens (the Acropolis) and Zurich (the Altstadt) have their origins in defensible cities. The Swiss prehistory is of lakeside settlement. The Athenian prehistory suggests the Acropolis (a flat top rock rising 150m above sea level)was the generating site for settlement.

All young people whether from developed or developing nations perhaps believe in a future which is an improvement on the present. I don’t think it is always necessary for revolutions for societies to change, they can evolve.

Occasionally dramatic sites do become available for development or alternatively designers, as Frank Gehry did in Bilbao, can create dramatic works in response to otherwise unremarkable environments. [ http://cryptome.org/jya/bilbao.htm ]

As a young architect Frank also started out wanting to change the world. “He was concerned with city planning, social justice and a more equitable environment.”

Elephant Eye do you know why they didn’t employ more staff to process the books in Zurich?

By: Elephant's Eye

Elephant's Eye — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:05:54 +0000

I remember that. It was just after we returned from Switzerland. There, I worked in a library with so many new books coming in, that they were stored in the basement for cataloguing later. Not enough staff to keep up with the book budget. Back to South Africa and a weak rand, and the University of Cape Town couldn’t afford to buy more than a handful of books in 6 months. From the sublime to the ridiculous. And which is which??

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:27:17 +0000

One would have thought that any society which assumes a ‘right to utopia’ is doomed. But I sympathize with the young people in rich and stable societies, because they have fewer challenges and fewer opportunities than people in rapidly changing societies. You can’t lead a revolution in a country which does not want a revolution; you can’t build on dramatic sites (as the Parthenon was built on the Acropolis) if a society is cherishing its existing landscape. Its a problem!