What an intriguing project to start the year off with. I have found myself looking and asking questions of every different high street as I walk down them. What makes a good high street building? What is a high street? Why does this high street work and this one not? Whose high street is this, can a high street belong to anyone, what constitutes towards a high street? All sorts of questions!!!
Whilst I feel I cant answer all of the above questions yet, I have begun to build up a series of ideas relating to the high street that I find interesting and what could potentially make a good high street building.
Walking around Aldgate high street and the A11 I find myself disillusioned with the buildings and spaces that surround me. There is no intrigue or emotion associated with the experiences of the place. Perhaps this is because I don't know the area that well, and my skeptical eye isn't that forgiving. Or perhaps it stems from a deeper problem of the place, one which will only be discovered upon further investigation.
Because I generally find the majority of the buildings uninteresting on an architectural level, I find myself asking different, grander questions of a larger scale. How have the subtle processes which guide a place in a particular direction, resulted in this feeling of disillusionment? As an architect I feel buildings have the potential to change a place for the better, however I know I cannot begin to do this until I understand how and why this part of London feels the way it does.
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