Arqueología del futuro

"A traves de la historia aparecen muchas y variadas manifestaciones de cambio, necesarias para afrontar el futuro2 de la humanidad; tambien de la arquitectura. Estas manifestaciones, alternativas, teorias y proyectos, a menudo denostados por la critica o dejados de lado por las teorias historicas de caracter generalista, destacan por su capacidad de convertirse en herramientas criticas frente al orden establecido, promoviendo asi nuevos imaginarios colectivos. En el contexto temporal que transcurre desde finales de la decada de los anos cincuenta hasta mediados de los setenta, esa “busqueda del futuro” no solo se encuentra totalmente aceptada y popularizada, sino que llega a convertirse en un acto necesario, legitimado por la incorporacion de la futurologia como ciencia de estudio fundamental. Este contexto resulta el marco idoneo para la aparicion de una serie de predicciones arquitectonicas encaminadas a dibujar nuevos caminos posibles para el futuro de la arquitectura, o lo que es lo mismo, para una arquitectura del futuro: “Ou vivrons-nous demain ?” (1963) y “Les cites de l'avenir” (1966) del historiador frances Michel Ragon, el numero “AD 2000+” (1967) de la revista Architectural Design y “The Future of the Future” (1969) del artista ingles John McHale, “Architecture: action and plan” (1967) y “Experimental Architecture” (1970) de Peter Cook, “Megastructure. Urban futures of the recent past” del critico ingles Reyner Banham, “Architecture 2000” (1971) del norteamericano Charles Jencks, “Stadstrukturen fur morgen” (1971) del suizo Justus Dahinden, “Arthropods: new design futures” (1972) del editor norteamericano Jim Burns y la seccion “Cosmorama” (1965-1973) de la revista inglesa Architectural Design, pueden considerarse como las mas destacadas. A pesar de lo heterogeneo de sus autores y enfoques, todas ellas gravitan en torno a cuatro alternativas para una redefinicion del futuro de la arquitectura: - La incorporacion de la arquitectura al heterogeneo espectro formal derivado de la explosion de las artes visuales y la exuberancia y proliferacion de los objetos de consumo a traves de un CAMBIO DE ESCALA. - La generacion de nuevas relaciones que experimenten en torno a los limites entre natural y artificial, o PERVERSIONES NATURALES. - La apertura de un nuevo camino, HACIA UNA ARQUITECTURA VIRTUAL, que experimente con una construccion de ambientes auspiciada por los avances tecnologicos derivados del control perceptivo. - LA MOVILIDAD COMO OPCION DE FUTURO, una respuesta a la aparicion de una nueva sociedad en continuo cambio, abogando por estructuras mas flexibles en todos los campos del ambito arquitectonico, de lo urbano a lo domestico. ABSTRACT of humanity, and of architecture too. Those signs, alternatives, theories and projects, that were often neglected by the critics or left aside by historical theories of general-interest, have an outstanding capacity to become critical tools with regards to the established order, and to promote new collective imagery. Within the timeframe that lasts between late fifties and midseventies, that ""quest for the future"" is not only accepted and made popular, but it even becomes an act of necessity that is legitimized by the incorporation of futurology as a key scientific field of study. This timeframe provides the most suitable context for the appearance of a series of architectonical predictions that are aimed to define new potential paths for the future architecture to follow, in other words, an architecture of the future: ""Ou vivrons-nous demain?"" (1963) y ""Les cites de l'avenir"" (1966) from French historian Michel Ragon, issue number ""AD 2000+"" (1967) of Architectural Design magazine and ""The Future of the Future"" (1969) from English artist John McHale, ""Architecture: action and plan"" (1967) and ""Experimental Architecture"" (1970) from Peter Cook, ""Megastructure. Urban futures of the recent past"" from English critic Reyner Banham, ""Architecture 2000"" (1971) from North-American Charles Jencks, ""Stadstrukturen fur morgen"" (1971) from Swiss Justus Dahinden, ""Arthropods: new design futures"" (1972) from North-American editor Jim Burns and the section ""Cosmorama"" (1965-73) from English magazine Architectural Design, can be considered as the most prominent architectonical predictions of that time. Despite the heterogeneity of authors and approaches, all of them are built around four alternatives that are aimed to re-define the future of architecture: - The incorporation of architecture to the heterogeneous formal spectrum of visual arts and the exuberance and the proliferation of objects of massive consumerism through an operation of CHANGE IN SCALE. - The production of new relationships aimed to experiment around the limits between natural and artificial, in other words, NATURAL PERVERSIONS. - A new road TOWARDS VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURE, to enable experiences with ambiance construction that are favored by technological advances derived from the control of perception. - MOVILITY AS AN OPTION FOR THE FUTURE, a response to the appearance of a new ever changing society, a bet on more flexible structures in all areas of architecture, from urban to domestic scale. "