and
>I would think there might be use for a way
>to conceptualize structural space which is more "ironic"; when is a room
>not a room?
>what is a corridor for?
Oh, a corridor can be a room too: who has NEVER seen groups of kids working
in the corridor? Or partly funished corridors? Corridors with little bays
off them?
Meandering paths through the forest?
It seems useful, though, to have some distinction between places for
staying and spaces for getting from one place to another... then... who
goes where in what style of going? -- I mean, is it cows in a herd or the
lynx on its daily circuit? Or a gaggle of mice...
>whither doors in space?
Doors are great for being either open or closed (have you read Latour's
sociology of a door-closer?) -- they provide options. Locked doors,
however, sound like one condition for when the empty room behind them is
not a room...
>the notion that the space predetermines use is something
>which needs to be 'queered'
Borrowing more from Latour: architecture doesn't predetermine but it
prescribes -- then people subscribe to the prescriptions or not... this is
under the assumption that architecture is for original construction of a
building and not a process going on with a building that is already in use.
In that case relations get more complex.
>do not design a computer room. Assume that in any 21st
>century
>learning environment, advanced technologies are already integrated
>
>as cultural tools; like, remember the old school desks that had inkwell hol=
es
>long after ballpoint pens were invented?
>
>remember those desks had a special sloop built in for our pencils/pens?
The problem with computers compared to pencils/pens is they are (and will
probably be for a long time yet) attached to their source of power.
CABLES is a real architectural challenge, especially if you want the setup
to be flexible, which of course you do. No computer room. Cables can be a
real problem (in the old Learning forest) both from a safety point of view
and aesthetically... there will probably be good solutions already in
existence, but I should think there is still room for creative thinking in
the area!
Eva
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Latour, Bruno. 1988. Mixing humans and nonhumans together: The sociology of
a door-closer. Social Problems, 35(3): 298-310.
appears also in:
Star, Susan Leigh (ed). 1995. Ecologies of knowledge. Work and politics in
science and technology. Albany: State University of New York Press.