From Centralization to Decentralization

"The world is such-and-such or so-and-so only because we tell ourselves that is the way it is. If we stop telling ourselves that the world is so-and-so, the world will stop being so-and-so."

Carlos Castaneda, A Separate Reality.

In the Industrial Age, centralization was the model for space.
Co-ordinate and control from a single location.
Factories, cities and communism.
The French Revolution had a centrifugal force.
Paris as the seat of government.
The Ecole des Beaux Arts as the seat of building design.
The Esquisse as the seat of the design process.

The Information Age is a decent time and space.
Decentralize is the pattern for space.
Satellites circumnavigate the globe.
Information as the fuel for life is accessible where-ever you may be.
Musical chairs is the game to play.
Sit anywhere you choose.
Your Home-Office is where-ever you want to work.
Architecture that walks and talks.
Release the reins on specialized rooms and furniture.
Flexibility and multi-purpose has returned.
Un-build the freeways, the peak hour rush is over.
Cities as we know them, are no longer needed.
The skyscraper as the city's tombstone, an edifice of a previous age.
Unfolding a new architecture in a new time and place.
Refolding the architecture for some place else.
Where you're at, is where it's at.


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