Construction

Opposite the house which is being demolished (see last post), where only a poetic lampstand amongst the rubble remains, a building at the opposite end of its life cycle is being built, with a purpose, as a health centre. (not sure why image on its side, not artistic!)

This has got me thinking about what we build and why we build it. Much as I'd love to claim this was an architectural post it is, as ever, a social anthropological one.

The Sun
My office is in Wapping. It is normally a very bland, grey place full of middle-class nothingness. No drama, just Waitrose and a couple of flats built in old docks, used by commuters as part-time homes. But this week the Dock has been awash with film cameras, photographers and TV presenters, one of my colleagues even claims they saw Reggie Yates! All this hubbub in my usually grey environment is in response to one man and his workers. And it got me thinking about the story the Paparazzi would tell? How would they embellish or alter events? What version of the truth would they tell? How much is constructed?

Syrian Sunsets
This got me thinking about the ongoing conflict in Syria. Now I am not for a minute trying to suggest that what has happened in Syria is anything but terrible, nor that Assad is not some kind of tyrant. However, isn't the truth always more complicated than the headline? One of my friends is a Syrian national living out his life in Syria and you know, he does the same things now as he ever did before, he takes his kid to school, he meets friends for coffee. He is not in fear of his life. Yes, he feels sad that his country is not one, but he does not live life in fear. What do we lose by simplifying a narrative? This is something I've been considering in my work, thinking about PR and how we have to simplify a story to fit it in a word-count, what is lost in the edit? How does that change what we create, construct or build?

The Sun rises, it will also set.
Two buildings, on opposite sides of a street. One demolished because the ground below it proved unstable, one built to heal the sick. And I wonder have either ever read the story about the man who built his house upon the sand? Unless they've got lorries full of ballast they're in for a rough time of it!

What are you building? Where are its foundations? Do you trust the building won't fall down? And is all that you see merely a construction?