Work expands to fill the time it is given. It was a common assumption and goal during the Industrial Revolution that once we mechanized our mundane everyday tasks, we would have an abundance of free time for leisure in which to pursue enjoyable activities.
Centuries on, it turns out that it’s actually work that is our most enjoyable pursuit. Humans are by nature industrious and intelligent. We like to occupy our free time with projects: quests of the unknown, creative endeavors, ideas and inventions. More activities and less vegetating on the couch or even deep thinking. There’s only so much we like to think about: after a certain point, we prefer to have our thoughts translated and manifested into verifiable results. We are forever in the pursuit of fulfilment as opposed to a need for comfort. We prefer to do. “The lust for comfort murders the passions of the soul,” as Kahlil Gibran put it, and vice-versa.
Whenever we have time, we fill it with new challenges and new problems to solve with the newfound ease of doing. So it turns out that our scarcest commodity is time: seemingly infinite, but never enough. All those contraptions that were born with an aim to create more free time were always outpaced by the number of things we could do to run out of time.
The new inventions of today will be common-place tomorrow, so much so that, we don’t notice their presence but cannot stand their absence. The tools we use for computation, communication, visualization, rapid prototyping, even rapid portability are still new and yet unimpressive. An artificial moon to replace streetlights and reduce power consumption? A hyperloop that takes you across the planet in a matter of minutes? Drones that can erect complex structures in days? Smart materials that expand and shrink as needed? Spaces that detect our presence and provide light or heat? These are conveniences we may not have heard of a few years ago but will be taken for granted within the next few years.
Denne historien er fra November 2018-utgaven av Indian Architect & Builder.
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Denne historien er fra November 2018-utgaven av Indian Architect & Builder.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Interlacing Perspectives
‘Meraki-2019’ A visionary Seminar series presented by Dr.Baliram Hiray College of Architecture, Bandra(East), Mumbai.
Facilitating A Community Through Architectural Practice
The humble, self-designed, self-built and organically planned home built by the majority of the world population rarely gets appreciated and critiqued as a viable lesson in architectural design.
The Art Of Solving Problems Creatively
The practice of architecture is perhaps incomplete without the complement of a variety of other arts.
Upcycling towards a playful tomorrow
Play is like the middle child, often forgotten, and always taking a back seat. For young kids, play can simply be running around, armwrestling with friends, building sandcastles on the beach, or singing popular music tracks in the shower.
Balancing The Poetics And Pragmatism Of Everyday Design
Humanity is faced with an oxymoronic crisis. The crisis involves the earth, the environment, impending looms of climate change, deforestation, loss of species, dwindling resources etc.
Just Give Me Some Space: Discussions And Beyond
Just Give Me Some Space (JGMSS) is Suha Riyaz Khopatkar’s debut book that paints a portrait of the dynamic life of an architecture student.
The Next In Vernacular Architecture
Architecture has become a capitalist.
Rethinking The Future: Architecture And Its Education
“I want to be like animals, the bird makes a nest in one or two days, the rat digs a hole in a night, but intelligent humans like us spend 30 years to have a house, that’s wrong.” - Jon Jandai
Uniting The Human-Scale With The City-Scale
London-based architect Usman Haque is famed for his interactive architectural systems, and for his exploration of newer, more effective ways of creating human engagement and interaction through his designs. Indian Architect & Builder caught up with him, to quiz him on a variety of topics such as his journey as an architect, his inspirations and philosophies, architects using the digital revolution to their advantage, and more!
Framing spaces
Almost every architect also doubles as a photographer or at least an enthusiast.
