Urban sprawl in California

Example of American urban sprawl. Internet download.
The freeways' knot. Download from Cyburbia.org

Cars in the American freeways. Internet download.

By august 28th, 2008, LA Times published about a revolutionary bill that would reverse the increasing California urban sprawl. “The number of miles Californians drive is growing almost twice as fast as the state's population, as housing developments sprout farther and farther from commercial centers. Not only does this urban sprawl put upward pressure on gasoline prices, it creates freeway gridlock, worsens air pollution and makes fighting global warming next to impossible.” .. “The bill wouldn't eliminate suburbs, but it would provide more choices for people who are forced to live far from their workplaces because they can't afford a home in the city”. To reach these goals, planners would provide incentives to impose smart growth, it means to build houses with a bigger density, close to urban centers and public transportation corridors. In exchange, builders who construct projects closer to public transportation will be graced with lighter requirements for environmental studies.
There were concerns, as the cost of housing would be automatically increased, the Cities would lose the right to determine the use of its land, and there was fear that California would not grow, but the bill was ultimately supported by environmentalists, local governments, and builders.
Those identical condominiums can be built thanks to car culture. Though the gasoline prices have increased in the last years, a recent study found that 68 percent of Americans haven't altered their cars’ habits, and that only 7 percent use public transportation. The reason seems to be that Americans live further away from their schools, jobs, malls. But I can tell that there is not enough public transportation to produce a radical change. You do not have a car in California, you can’t move, or at least just travel in a few restricted areas.

The bill, aims to strengthen the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS). This protects more than 850 parcels of federal land scattered across the American west from urban sprawl. But some groups are concerned by the exclusion of a New Hampshire-sized portion of the California Desert Conservation Area. Omitting this land would allow utilities to build power transmission lines and open it up to energy development.
A lot is said against urban sprawl and it won’t be easy to find a solution, though California lawmakers have tried for decades to keep sprawl under control. Up till now, my worst impression was at the 5 freeway, a few miles South from Silicon Valley, were a multitude of identical houses have been built, clearly to provide dwellings to many international employees. Because they are destined to temporary immigrants from India, China, Japon, Israel, Pakistan, Philippines, among other nations. It is difficult for me to understand, why planners accepted immense condominiums with repeating styles and patterns ad infinitum. I’m wondering, for example, how a Pakistani feels compared to a Chinese living in the same habitat, having as main distinction the apartment number. My conclusion, they all work with numbers, they are treated –in consequence- like numbers. Not like people with different back grounds, culture and habits.
As a moral, I’d like to bring up the subject of a short story I’ve read a few days ago. It is “Twice Around the Block”, by Lawrence Treat.

It is a mistery story, a man had the perfect alibi to kill his wife and stay with her lover, Velma, who was his neigbor. I did not enjoy the story because when Lawrence described the sprawled neighborhood with the identical houses, well, I saw it coming.
“He never could understand why a woman like Velma had landed in Sunny Hills, where even the small, neat houses were so monotonously alike that you hardly tell them apart”.
And at last…he was a mistaken assassin:
“Harry straightened up, and stared unbelievingly at his wife. A quick, hard lump seemed to rip at his stomach, and he grabbed the doorway for support –the doorway that was identical with Velma’s”.

Further readings:

http://www.cyburbia.org/aggregator/sources/311
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/28/opinion/ed-planning28
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726483.200-california-desert-omitted-from-conservation-bill.html
http://www.hybridcars.com/oil-dependence/gas-prices-continue-decline-0820.html

Cities like brains: the scaling laws issue

Concept city tower in Shangai. Internet download.

Concept towers in Shangai. Internet download.

There is a publication, in Science Daily, dated September 19, 2009, regarding a new study by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: cities are organized like brains, and the evolution of cities mirrors the evolution of human and animal brains.
“Just as advanced mammalian brains require a robust neural network to achieve richer and more complex thought, large cities require advanced highways and transportation systems to allow larger and more productive populations” …
It means that as brains grow more complex, in the chain of species, and with the human brain on top, they modify their structure and organization in order to achieve the right level of interconnectedness.
Mark Changizi explained “As with brains, interconnectedness is also a critical component of the overall function of cities”. “One couldn’t put together three copies of Seattle (surface area of 83.9 sq. miles) and expect the result to have the same interconnectedness and efficiency as Chicago (surface area of 227.1 sq. miles). There would be too many highways with too few exits and lanes that are too narrow”.
In his research, Changizi found evidence linking the size of a city or a brain to the number and size of its supporting infrastructure, which would scale up as the surface area of brains and cities increase. And he mentions a number of mathematical exponents that would reflect the scaling rule.
I understand his conclusions could apply to some important cities in U.S.A. But I cannot avoid remembering that some “freeways” (well, they are not “free” ways, a payment has to be done) built by the Junta Militar in Buenos Aires, simply cut the city in slices and without extensions or infrastructure to support them. They are just “freeways”, ending somewhere in the South.
I would make an exception if we go up North, as the Autopista del Sol was built outside Buenos Aires downtown, in open areas, and further constructions including public and private buildings, routes and avenues supported it, the further, the less support, just the minimum needed for the rural neighborhoods.
And it comes to my mind another situation. The scaling laws mentioned here are related to fractality. And for mathematical models, the theory usually applies to extended cities, as the examples mentioned above. My question is, what happens if the city is extended high, let’s say, in one point, with a huge tower (for example the futuristic projects for Shangai) where the tower has fractal Dimension D=0 (seen far from the sky), but it still has all the properties of an extended city, only that concentrated. I am wondering how Changizi’s formula would apply here, also supposing the tower could be completely isolated. If the tower is a city in itself, and depending on its design, it could probably not comply with fixed scaling laws. I think there could be findings of partial scaling laws. Let us remember a city can be studied as a living biological organism, but it does not work as a real one, every situation has to be particularly analyzed before releasing universal rules.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090903163945.htm

Installations and urban memories in the work of Ilya kabakov

"The Toilette" Kabakov, 1992. Internet download Exterior view of "The Toilette". Internet download.

Detail from "My mother's album", 1993. One of the corridors with the landscape pictures. Internet download.

Some of the more prominent artists of the “Perestroika”, among them Ilya Kabakov and Eric Bulatov, had been associated with the shows of “unofficial art” from the Soviet Union which were seen in Western Europe in the late 1970’s. Though political journalists received them very well, Western Arts critics dismissed them stating that these authors were simply imitating outdated artistic manifestations. In the ‘80’s, however, they realized that Russian artists were not following the Avant-garde in the West, but they had produced encoded expressions of the Soviet official art. It means, in order to understand the new Russian art correctly, the spectator had to see the artists’ love-hate relationship in the retoric of Soviet official art.

The Soviet way of life has been present in Ilya Kabakov’s series of provocative installations in the field of Visual Culture. This academic subject usually includes some combinations of cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, cognitive science, neurology, image and brain theory, anthropology, etc., by focusiong on aspects of culture.

By using fictional biographies, inspired by his own experiences, Kabakov has attempted to explain the birth and death of the Soviet Union.

At the end of the millennium, it was fashion to speak about the "end of history" and the "end of art," without saying anything about the end of the world. The philosopher, arts critic, essayist, Boris Groys, has commented that Soviet civilization was the first modern one whose death we have witnessed, and there are more to come. Kabakov's work fits in well with this theory where Art is remaining as a therapy of survival. He utilizes the museum not merely as an institution, but as a personal refuge, building his “own” museum, changing walls, ceiling, floors, and lighting, the totality of the installation is always precarious; but there is always an empty space, a white wall where artist and visitor can find their escape. Kabakov's installations are in direct relationship with architecture, habitat, and urban memories in the shape of temporary homes. For example, “the toilette” reminds me the poverty of post wars, the poverty of refugees, conventillos overcrowding, the simple accomodation for the first immigrants anywhere…And there is so much more to evoke.

“Labyrinth (My Mother's Album)” is a large-scale installation consisting of a series of narrow corridors in the dim light of bare bulbs. The viewer enters the installation through a door and is lead through progressively shorter corridors at right angles until he or she enters a small space in the centre of the labyrinth. This room, only a square metre in size, contains bits of wood and other debris. The corridors are constructed to resemble the interior of a shabby Soviet apartment block or civic building, with grey and brown boring walls interrupted by some pine doors at irregular intervals, the dirty floor is made from grubby wooden boards and the ceiling is supported by cheap, unpainted timber frames. In dispite of this, the sad urban memory contains the happy memories of freedom, in the black and white photographs hanging on the walls, taken by Kabakov’s uncle; they are a clear allusion to the Russian love of Nature, which survives even in the worst urban conditions. Kabakov has described his personal memories of corridors in these words ‘Numerous corridors have persecuted me all my life – straight ones, long ones, short ones, narrow ones, twisted ones, but in my imagination, they are all poorly lit and always without windows, with closed or semi-closed doors along both sides ... All the corridors of my life, from earliest childhood on, have been connected with [the] torture of endless anticipation’ (Kabakov, ‘“The Corridor (My Mother’s Album)” 1988’, The Text as the Basis of Visual Expression, p.369).

The psychological importance of a door

Magritte's painting. "Surprise Answer"

Some years ago I accompanied my husband to see a house in Riverside. First time for me to go to Riverside, and could not imagine the trip would be so terribly long if we took the 91 Freeway at 3pm. A trip that would take 1 hour for us, took five hours, only to arrive at the mountains, and from there, we were driven somewhere in the dark, uphill. Considering we had to stay approximately one hour, then go back, (maybe it would take two hours), I found it reasonable to ask the homeowner permission to use the restroom. She offered me to use the master bathroom. To my shocking surprise, the master bathroom had a huge beautiful jacuzzi, but only a tiny curtain separated the toilette from the master bedroom. What was worst, there was somebody watching tv in the bedroom. My first reaction was to get away from there, directly, that was it. But the rational area of my brain, ordered me to be polite, I love anthropology, I love to study about people and habitat, culture, etc., I couldn't be so silly. And I wouldn't make it if it took hours to get down the mountain and find at least a gasoline station.

It is very common in California that the regional parks do not have doors in the stalls. To avoid drugs consumption and whatever bad acts you can imagine, but a private toilette...that was weird for me.

Now, if I analyze the facts, a standard interior hollow wood door is not sound proof; it covers the opening the same way as curtain. At last, it is the same concept with different materiality. What was the problem then? The habits, the memory of certain objects and their strict functionality. When the problem is exposed so brightly as Magritte did, I feel happy that somebody else has shared my concern about doors and privacy.

Immateriality in Painting and Architecture

Fig. 01. Internet downloadFig. 02. Internet download

Fig.03. Internet download

Immaterial architecture is more a state of mind than a tectonic quality. Architecture theory leans towards abstraction, virtuality, immateriality, the representation of what is not tangible; while the practice of it remains based on materials properties. The term is also related to the architecture in a state of “disappearance”, a building simplified and reduced to its essential elements; lightness, transparency. In Architecture and painting, since the advances on digital painting in the 90’s, the term recalls an analogy between software design and architecture; even virtual reality as a reduction of the physical and immaterial worlds. But this is not the rule….
There are many possible representations for the purposes exposed here, but we recur to two paintings and one picture only, as they are very significative.
René François Ghislain Magritte (November 21st, 1898 –August 15th, 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist. His work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. In Magritte’s paintings, the rose (fig 01) is realistically painted, but suddenly the object is denied when we understand the clue: it is too big for this room, it reminds us the almost complete occupation of the interior space, the room is there, but is hidden; the rose is highly sensitive for the viewer, in its color, texture, and smell. It becomes so important that the room loses significance except to emphasize the rose’s huge scale. These Magritte’s domestic objects (fig 02) are out of context too, what immerses us in uncertainty; they invade the space we suppose interior, but we are not sure, as exterior view is superimposed to the interior; the walls are the sky, or even better a representation of it, given the corners and the ceiling are materialized showing a certain kind of techtonics. A similar situation is shown on Robert Mottar’s picture, New York 1959 (fig 03). The construction provides the frame and people provide the materiality. This conjunction allows us to consider “a building” in itself. In a strict sense, the building has no materiality. People is the building’s soul. Without people, this building would be nothing else that the configuration of a structure.
It seems to me that in the examples shown, we have an invitation to “look at”, but not to look at any specific thing, we have to ignore all particulars to appreciate the total gestalt. An element could dominate the scene, but it is impossible to reduce the artistic and architectural concepts to that specific picture. This is a kind of “apperception” of space.

The storage as a bedroom is a social problem

Garage converted into a living unit plus two storages (at least with windows). Personal archives

House and storage in Southgate. Personal archives

There is a common trick in California to sub rent the property: the installation of a storage. To add a storage in a house is not a problem, while it is located on a concrete slab complying the set backs. A storage can be bought at Home Depot, Sears, etc. and there is specialized people to ensamble the parts. In my country, it is very difficult to find such storages in the city, as the lots are too narrow, so my first impression was to think that the American storage was too much. But this is not, considering Americans use not only storages to keep furniture, old things, garden tools, etc, but they also use the garages as full storages.

The Latino mind goes further. Of course, this is not for all, and it is not a rule. But it happens frequently. The storage is part of "making the living", as there is no special regulation about it. In the picture's case, the blue storage has been painted like the house, it was built to match the house. The property was vacant by the time I took the picture, but there was no doubt for me, somebody has been renting it. The storages above, have a window added. And the garage had been clearly converted into a "second unit".

Planners are always worried about the lot coverage, to avoid urban sprawl, but forgot to include the storage in the counting, as it is an accessory structure. Unless the storage is too big, it will be considered just a place to keep the tools. A problem like this cannot be considered under the light of the lot coverage. The social problem, the lack of dwellings, have to be resolved first.

In present times, Los Angeles is becoming a city of rich and poor, with those of middle class that go away every time but toward the suburbs. The city began the decade with but of 372.000 units of overcrowded dwellings, of which 102.000 were severely overcrowded. And the situation continues worsening, from 1990 to 2000 the city population incremented in 300000 people and the numbers of housings has grown, for the same lapse of time, in 30.600. (Data from the Report of the Housing Crisis Task Forced, year 2000).
“The small number of units now being built are either luxury units for high income households or government-subsidized units for low income households. While higher income families build ever larger houses in the city’s most expensive areas, the solution for the middle class in search of single family homes has been to move out to suburbs in north and East Los Angeles County and to San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The solution for the poor has been to double and triple up in existing housing and to add new, sometimes substandard housing through unpermitted accessory units and converted garages in many of the City’s neighborhoods. Such units can even be found in aflluent areas”.
“In the absence of professional developers who assemble land and finance to construct new housing, individual property owners throughout the City are supplementing their incomes and subsidizing their own home ownership by creating illegal rental units. At a time when new construction cannot meet the housing needs of a growing population, residents are clearly finding ways to accommodate growth.”
This paragraph belongs to Report of the Housing Crisis Task Force, 2000, and subrepticially mentions that inhabitants, as a dynamic system, have found a way to accommodate.

Buying a house with illegal constructions

Illegal "bedroom" at the back of the property.Personal archives

There is a generalized situation in California, related to the Real Estate desperation to sell properties everywhere. It is to sell properties with illegal constructions, sometimes outside as we can see in the example, sometimes inside. I'm sorry to say even in the property disclosure, the fact of illegality is not clearly shown. If the buyer has experience, suppose he is a general contractor, he will probably take the opportunity of illegality to drop the house price. It is important to know that the illegal square footage does not count for insurances, does not count for taxes, does not count for the real price of the house, as it has no record in the City Hall, and what is worst, there is a possibility that it cannot be legalized, in case the construction is not good or is affecting the house layout, the set backs, or ventilation, illumination, and so on. No need to say illegal constructions have never fire protection.

People usually buy houses considering the square footage they see (or they are told); the typical is the patio cover enclosed, converted into a family room. The best way to reverse this situation is to include in the disclosure a real record of the property, a record taken from Planning Department. As far as I've known, no realtor shows the records .........

What I found funny is that the disclosure has a question, if somebody has died in the property in the last three years, what seems a weird question, but considering all religions in California, people could think that a phantom is living inside. That's important, together with the earthquakes and landslides, tsunamis, but the house record seems not.(!)

Now, who is guilty in this situation? For the City Hall, the new homeowner is guilty and he has the obligation to legalize the property completely. If the illegal construction complies with the current Codes of Zoning and Building and Safety, it can be legalized without further problems, correcting whatever is wrong. If not, just wait for an order of demolition. If the homeowner do not demolish, he is sent to Court. If time goes by, and there is still no demolition, just wait to be sent to jail.
If any reader has a specific question, feel free to send me an email mbmahiques@gmail.com

The Belly of an Architect

http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/images/films/2003winter/architecture_belly.jpg

Movie shot. Internet download.

The Belly of an Architect is a 1987 very interesting film about architecture (and more) directed by Peter Greenaway. The movie stars are Brian Dennehy and Chloe Webb.
The film's protagonist Stourley Kracklite (Dennehy) is an American architect who has been commissioned to construct a giant exhibit hall retrospective in Rome, dedicated to the architecture of 18th Century architect, Etienne Louis Boullée. However, doubts arise among his Italian colleagues to the legitimacy of Boullée among famed architects. Kracklite's physical and social ruin conceptually corresponds to the decline of his idol Boullée. He has very bad feelings about himself, he is humiliated to be old, to be fat, and to be surrounded by Roman art and architecture whose perfect scaling and imposing architecture he has always admired. As time goes by, Dennehy finds himself addressing Boullée’s buildings as icons of the man himself, and he is even scripting a series of postcards to the extinct architect who suddenly seems resuscitated.
The character of Kracklite himself becomes obsessed with the historical Cesar Augustus after hearing that Livia, Augustus’ wife, supposedly poisoned him. Kracklite assumes that his own wife has tried to do the same due to his increasing stomach pains. Greenaway himself, who conceived of the film while suffering a psychosomatic illness in Rome, claimed it was about the many ways human beings reproduce: in buildings, sculpture, painting, photography, photocopies, and bed. Greenaway's visual technique heightens Kracklite's alienation, to the point that the main character Kracklite starts his photocopies obsession with pictures of bellies, indeed, of his own belly.
Peter Greenaway is the only filmmaker who could think at the same time of…obscenity? sex? and geometry. That is impressive. But more impressed I felt when I saw Kracklite mapping his own intestines –his belly- as the rounded forms alluding to the spherical constructions designed by Boullée, and his wife’s pregnancy belly.

Here we can see the impressive picture of the architect in relation with the monumental exhibition. Picture downloaded from Internet.

Even the fruits are part of the buildings models. Picture downloaded from Internet.