138 Cities
138_Cities
Stones move stones,
Cathedrals, churches, Cities,
Breath, time, lucidity.
Cities are our make all, they pervade the way for paths to and from our houses to new and old meaningful amenities. Made of rock, that rock my world, but do not be deceived by the City maker, who did not know the future of Urbanism and flexibility in a rising occupation. The population of Cities has grown and grown that we live up, not down, we live higher, and higher, but do not feel the effect of weather since we perfected the skyscraper, the very first one being built in 1885, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution – being 1760, it took over a hundred years to learn to build up! 100 years ago: the woman won the vote, now look at their mesmeric stride into the offices of Mayors, Lawyers, Bankers, Judges, School teachers, and many more important high powered career paths, when will the first woman (Greta) change this world! And it takes great change to see the difference in a skyline of a city, as we see coming in East London, UK.
The Home Insurance Building built in 1885, in Chicago Illinois, USA went down in history as the first ever skyscraper; by 1890 it reached 55m (180ft) into the sky. The tallest skyscraper today is Burj Khalifa in Dubai, not surprisingly! It reaches 830m (2775ft) high, Kilimanjaro a mountain I have climbed and reached the peak at 17 years of age, is in comparison 5,895m (19,340ft), above sea level, in Tanzania, Africa, the tallest free-standing mountain in the World! Aeroplanes fly at 10,600m (between 31,000-38,000ft). Pollution in the atmosphere builds up at ground level, and improves at 12-15m above ground, (4 storeys high) and there is only minimal difference above this level to the ozone layer. The atmosphere reaches a height between 10,000 and 50,000m (32,000 - 164,000 ft), we can see this layer as a gradient of increasing density - ozone is denser than air. So, we need to live above 4 storeys high.
Cities are full of cunning and constant cool, especially Capital cities. Yet frightening for their higher levels of density, lack of community surveillance and therefore higher crime. When Le Corbusier inspired other architects, with his Ville Radieuse in Paris, made of cruciform towers distanced by recreational spaces, he made sure there was plenty of visibility from occupation to street level, by the time Trellick Tower was built, by Erno Goldfinger, Kensal Town, London, 1972, Corbusier lost his copied craft of community overlooking, and this was the beginning of many brutalist buildings, feeling cold, and isolated from within. I am sure you will get a different story from dwellers there today, however we have never copied the style since, so pure brutalism does not work.
The City is a mind map of knowing relatively where you are: to what you need, but rarely bites beauty down to enjoy everyday of walking the same paths. Universal synapses: put the brain into enjoying at times, a walk to the park, but also needing intellectual stimulation by abstract graphic means, the beginning and end of Graffiti. When will we see a high-flying floating monorail to live above pollutants and travel to hub destinations for each new activity or experience?
So, let us get the party started, with Greta, in our hygge (Danish), lagom (Swedish), lives, for the Scandinavians have a knack of making civility look easy, over England’s riotous, comedic, yet mocking insinuations. A home today is friendship, where as a house must be for living in. Do not get trapped inside in order that someone stops your free will, and do not make and break when we all need a home in each other. The control – ‘neutral’, is a clean house, and a happy home. Function does rule form, but Cities are a great way for partying and working, living and having fun. It only takes organisation and creativity to find a picnic in the living room at home, walks in the mud to clear the blues, a river bird to spark love, and a Cathedral to stand in grace.
Levitation, an occupation, meditation,
Money doesn’t grow on trees, so
Start work please,
We all want to live richly in the City!!!
Love
AB x
