Have Things Always Been Built to Last Until NOW? The Spooky Spiral of Architecture
"They just don't make things like they used to."
It has been said that a certain architectural pattern can be seen with a glance back through history, a pattern of predictive decay. In fact it was a couple of weeks ago when I heard somebody make an observation about the history of construction that was pretty startling, and I realized that what they'd described was no longer an historic pattern, but that it was upon us.
The pattern suggested was explained something like this:
Buildings which were constructed around a thousand years ago were generally built to last around a thousand years.
built around 70 AD in Rome, this amphitheater was only used for about 400 years
things built to last longer
Construction from around ONE HUNDRED years ago was generally built to last around a hundred years.
constant maintenance on these old sculpted houses
Buildings which were slapped together around TWENTY years ago were expected to last maybe twenty years.
builders gone to get more spit and tape
Now...
This brings us to today. The pattern seems accurate-- the twenty-year-old houses are now showing our modern repair crews that they were held together with staples and glue, spit and tape. Houses in the USA which are over a hundred years old are often in a perpetual state of certain collapse as their owners battle the chiming clock, while the seasons take turns brutalizing the painted wooden sculptures until their ornate touches and charming character are left flapping in the breeze.
Throughout the world, ancient mosques and cathedrals are under constant repair. Were they only built to last until now? The trend has apparently been set, and the finish line is in sight for the world's buildings-- everything is falling apart now.
The Forecast is Interesting
Where do things go from here? It's already been a few weeks since I heard that chronology of imminent dilapidation, so what's next? Structures built to last two years?
I have a tent that I still take out about once a year-- I've had it for about eight years. Total of all the little camping trips since I've had the tent, I've used the thing maybe thirty times. It's falling apart, leaky, and several of the support poles are damaged.
The camping gear will last a month. Then what? Weekly structures?
Daily homes?
Hourly?
The Good News
Can architecture really predict where we are going in life? It may be something to think about anyway, if the modern home only lasts long enough to watch one episode of Gilligan's Island before it crumbles back into the sands of time, and the camping gear is trashed a month later, then it comes down to minutes...
There are some good features to note in this spiral of decay, before I take any more of your time here. The large green leaf you've picked for a hat is wilting quickly, but I have some good news: No more paying rent.
Don't think of yourself as homeless, know instead that we are home-free, and no more frightening knocks on the door, no more broom closets (where we're going, we won't need brooms) no more Better Homes and Gardens on the coffee table.
The money that will be saved when there's no mortgage on any buildings, and fresh air-- the exercise-- we need to look at the bright side.
Teepees might be ok for a while.
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thanks for reading along, more to follow
all images above free thanks to Pixabay
any questions, comments or concerns, press 'reply' below and let me have it.
this make sense in the context of the archaic revival. the power mongers desire to return us to serfdom, then to a nomadic existence, and then get rid of us entirely.
some of us who build have been watching the decline for decades, up close. i could discuss the move to use less durable materials, as well as building styles, until the cows come home.
this is the result of our "just in time" world. most people are not interested or concerned. this appears at many levels, in many aspects.
we used to have stores of food for winter. now the grocery "stores" have less than three days worth of supplies. for the vast majority, survival skills are lost arts, things of the past. i am witness to the fact that most builders do what they do out of necessity, because they cannot do anything else. our education system is deliberately subverted. in fifteen years, in the building trades, i never found one person, other than myself, who even knew what the Pythagorean theorem is. this is the building trades as we know them today. i learned them to understand the basis for civilization. the idea of grammar, logic, and rhetoric being the structure, assembly, and use of language as a metaphor drawn from building is no accident. this was the classical understanding of, and action in the natural world. now the property we own has been made disposable and we, ourselves are well on our way to being next.
I'd never really thought about the trivium corresponding to building like that-- great point. There's yet another relationship to the philosophies of 'Masons', or stone workers.
I heard that a lot of the Masonic lodges are being sold in the last few years, makes one go "hmmm".
Great reply, thank you for sharing that
Очень Интереснои красиво..
Thank you for reading, and commenting
(I used 'Google translate' to read the Russian language)
So what you're saying is that just when I get enough money saved up for a deposit on a house so I can go into insane levels of debt and spend the rest of my life slaving away to repay the debt and crippling interest rates, we're not going to have houses?
Well that sucks.
How come everybody else gets to be in debt, worn down, milked, fleeced, discarded and I don't?
It's not fair I tell you!
Although - given the earthquakes we've been having lately I think I'd rather be in a flexible wooden building than a rigid stone one. They don't tend to cope with the ground wriggling around underneath them so much.
And, if what you are saying is true, then the wise man would invest in a company that makes camper vans.
Hmm... now there's a plan!
I know-- I built (in my imagination) a nice in-ground passive-solar hideaway, many years ago, but I was always too busy to visit the imaginary place, much less actually build it.
I know what you mean. i keep building cabins in the woods and sailing boats.
Maybe when Steemit takes off and i become a millionaire I'll get to flex my creative muscles in the real world and build something awesome.
Disclaimer: If it is actually me doing the building then end product will not be what you see in the glossy brochure. It will look more like the picture in the glossy brochure after it has been scrunched up and tossed into the rubbish hehe
A Steem-powered house-- so to speak-- is a possibility now, and yea for mine to be right, it'll take me too long and I don't know how to build a house, I'll just hire the best builders Steem can buy.
Interesting observations here. It seems that as we've become better at conditioning the air inside our built spaces, the necessity for bigger thicker construction has diminished. Energy is easier to come by now... so maybe in the future, yes, we could be more invested in mobile architecture. Maybe even kinetic architecture that goes where we decide to go. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
could be this is our neo-nomadic future, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Nine_%28tensegrity_sphere%29
That looks good, I'll take a flying Bucky ball when the teepee wears out!
colonizing the atmosphere. the sky is the limit.
Love me some Bucky Fuller. Here's some writing on a similar topic - https://steemit.com/life/@voronoi/new-topographies-designing-for-a-nomadic-future
that's a cool screen name. this is a voronoi diagram on a sphere.
I thought about 'kinetic' architecture-- I came up with a poncho.
I get the impression that money has something to do with recent buildings being thrown together with the cheapest materials, while air conditioning concerns seem logical too.
Thanks for the input!
Those big wooden sheds are painful to look at... I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down... If Americans can build nuclear aircraft carriers, why can't they build proper houses?
On the other hand, am I taking a joke literally when I mention survival bias? Buildings that were built to last for 50 years 500 years ago don't exist anymore.
Once the grass is installed, the finished houses look good enough in photos to send to the sailors on the carrier, so the illusion is all that needs to be well-built.
Wow. What an interesting thought path to take these observations down. Reminds me of something I heard Caroline Myss say in lecture a couple years ago about how ever since the threat of nuclear war dawned on humanity, we've become increasingly unable to imagine the future. Appliances, homes, nothing is built to last more than a few years anymore.
You could also see it as following the subscription consumerism path that Apple, Spotify, EA and everyone is trying so hard to normalize. That when you buy something, you're paying for temporary access to it. When you buy a home, you're buying 20 years worth of house, then you need to buy another. Just like we need new iPhones at an ever increasing rate.
Edit: ...aaaand resteemed. Also, totally following you now.
And followed back!
I saw the progression of time as a spiral, and as everything tightened up in the infinite coil it became clear that THIS is what we have all been waiting for. As that idea becomes more apparent, the need for a future might have become negligible in the world's mind.
It begins to beg a lot of questions about the nature of time and if humans have the capacity for true upward mobility, in the dimensional sense. Perhaps we're nearing the end of time itself, or put differently, the end of time being a useful tool for us.
What a time to be alive. Eh, eh... see what I did there?
When emergencies arise, humans show their capacity to transcend dimensions, and they'll risk everything helping strangers-- real human nature emerges, overcoming the human conditioning. We're an OK bunch, I think, overall.
I wonder if time CAN end, or if it fractals infinitely inward-- zoom in and there's always another spiral...