If you build it, it will be cool
Everybody’s life could do with just a little intelligent design, couldn’t it?
John Scoles
Possibly the greatest achievement in downtown Winnipeg’s
recent architectural history wasn’t even construction. It
was destruction: the bulldozing of the creepy public washrooms
at the corner of Osborne and Broadway.
Another project that might be worth tackling in some way is the
incredibly ugly Manitoba Housing Authority building at the corner
of Kennedy Street and Sargent Avenue. Somebody could at least
give the tenants some nice drapes to make up for the windows that
make absolutely no sense at all.
Why is it so hard to build nice things these days? How come all
the best-looking buildings are the old ones? It’s not like
the world is running out of bricks. I guess the people in charge
of the ‘building blocks’ of society are what you might
call blockheads.
Intelligent design is a hot topic these days, and thank God for
that. If people are going to continue to hold onto the scientific
theories that point to human intellectual capabilities as the
basis upon which we model the mind of God, then we better be prepared
to accept that ‘dull normal’ — which is the
official term for the intellectual capabilities of roughly 30
per cent of the population — just isn’t cutting it.
Even if there isn’t a God, let’s at least try to assign
some degree of capable leadership to the universe, eh?
The problem with leadership, though, seems to be that leaders
get so caught up in making sure that the followers are so entangled
in their web of work and fear that there’s really no time
left to do anything else. No wonder we don’t see many good
ideas actually being carried out, architecturally or otherwise.
It’s simple: the imagination can’t be divided up and
fit into cubicles.
In my own experience, my home always looked better when I wasn’t
being led at all by anyone (i.e., when I didn’t have a regular
job). I had more time to paint, tend to my plants, make interesting
lampshades, work on my spice collection and build a library I
could reach from the tub.
If there is an intelligent designer up there (and I find it hard
to imagine that there could be a being more stupid than humans
anywhere in the entire universe), I hope he or she or it isn’t
working too hard creating worlds like ours every other week. I
really can’t see that going anywhere good. More than one
Earth-type operation per millennium could only lead to some really
embarrassing colour schemes.
Life is a gift, they say, and most people would probably agree
that you’ll do a better job wrapping one gift than wrapping
a whole pile of them. Maybe the answer is right there. Maybe the
meaning of life — for humans and for universes — is
to just do one small thing really well.
We can mirror the idea of intelligent design by devoting ourselves
independently to one little space — whether it’s a
new house, an apartment, an abandoned farmhouse or an old downtown
building — and having the patience and care to make it timelessly
beautiful. |
Uptown
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