tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27784092.post5305066253066342609..comments2008-04-28T10:02:34.966-04:00enriquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04577885003206195489noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27784092.post-15059470892701187592008-04-28T10:02:00.000-04:002008-04-28T10:02:00.000-04:00Thanks for the comment! That is precisely what I am arguing (and what I was arguing in the paper I delivered at Yale a couple of weeks back): that in addition to form, these spaces are used to "shape" knowledge. <BR/><BR/>As you can imagine, I was very sympathetic to Ed's talk. I did look at his talk in terms of an "alternate" or "anonymous" (thank you, Professor Giedion) history of modernity. It was a shame that people connected the whole "air, light, space, and hygiene" thing with CIAM and modernism in general. In fact, the whole idea of looking earlier and earlier for the "sources" of architectural modernism can get old ... and I guess that's something I gleaned about the Eigen v. Cousins thingy.<BR/><BR/>Ed never succumbed to the Banham tack and argued that such buildings were "excluded" from a discussion of modernism ... and this is, as you can well surmise, a good thing.enriquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04577885003206195489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27784092.post-3169220136107243102008-04-28T09:47:00.000-04:002008-04-28T09:47:00.000-04:00Those are some amazing images, particularly the colors and the posed "look like you are working" men in them. The spaces are probably also useful as representations of national awesomeness. Do you know what they were photographed for? Just to send up to the DOD or publication or...? Great topic and great materials. <BR/><BR/>One other question. I am curious about the distinction between labs as spaces for producing knowledge and labs as spaces for producing extreme environmental conditions. Is the latter really an end in itself? Or is it a means of producing knowledge? imho the most fascinating and fruitful part of tracking the production of knowledge in specific spaces is the ability to show that the knowledge is not neutral or unmarked by its passage through these spaces. If there is a similar case to be made that these spaces somehow leak out and inform aeordynamics (or other unrelated building systems) then I think you have an even more awesome argument.<BR/><BR/>It'd be interesting to hear what you think of the question from Ed's talk last week, that really what he is doing is an alternate tale of modernity (if not the Modern Movement). What did you think of that, and what would you say if someone asked you a similar question?reversealchemyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07530939726895067076noreply@blogger.com