On Obsolescence: Value and Utility of the Built Environment

Daniel Abramson, Energy and sustainability, expanding design practices, FULL, High Density, Ibai Rigby Assoc, Lecture, Politics and economics, Technology and fabrication, Territory and mobility

Architect’s role, Architectural theory, Built environment, Capitalism, Chicago, Consumption, Controlled demolition, Cultural agitator, Economics, Functionality, Future Urban Legacy Lab, Heritage, History, History of Architecture, Housing market, Lecture, Modernism, Modernity, New York City, Politics, Pollution, Real State, Research, Skyscrapers, Space-time relationship, Sustainability, Technology, Urban Legacy, Urban planning, USA, Waste generation

Lecture of Daniel Abramson on his book "Obsolescence: an architectural history" -- https://lccn.loc.gov/2015017854

Filmed and edited by Ibai Rigby.

In the innovative and wide-ranging Obsolescence, Daniel M. Abramson investigates this notion of architectural expendability and the logic by which buildings lose their value and utility. The idea that the new necessarily outperforms and makes superfluous the old, Abramson argues, helps people come to terms with modernity and capitalism’s fast-paced change. Obsolescence, then, gives an unsettling experience purpose and meaning.