The Arcade

Response to The Dialectics of Seeing and The Arcades Project
Tyler Thayer
September 2, 2010

The Arcades Project. Photo of Arcades in Paris.

Walter Benjamin was, in himself, the embodiment of the ‘flâneur’ as described in Part II of Baudelaire, or the Streets of Paris. Benjamin seems to argue that the things that one perceives are a ‘historically transient truth’ being ‘expressed concretely.’  Benjamin believes in concrete truth that reveals society’s ‘internal position,’ and further still the deepest parts of one’s soul and very being.  His argument, especially after his literary shift from 1934-35, finds its grounding in ‘Marxist terms.’  This seems, though, to put him at odds with capitalism, which always flavors his observations.  Nonetheless, Benjamin seems to have an affinity with the arcade, perceiving it as a socialite’s dream reality, a natural progression of society.

The advancements of construction technology (i.e. Iron construction) have created the arcade, a world within a world, a place of exuberant mercantile systems.  The arcades, to Benjamin, ‘were the precise material replica of the internal consciousness, or rather, the unconscious of the dreaming collective.’ To say this is to say that this is utterly a manifestation of the will of society, allowed by the advancements in technology. Furthermore, the typology of the arcade has been seen before, it is a street.  Within the culture of Paris and the invention of glass and iron, the natural progression of the street, for the merchants, was to create a place for the urbanite to inhabit at all times no matter the weather.  The street becomes a place about and for the pedestrian.

The idea of the ‘flâneur,’ the urban observer, and the arcade ushers in a new dimension to urban architecture, creating a sense of place oriented around the pedestrian observer.  From a Marxist viewpoint, this is the evolution of the domination of western society in Europe, but it also marks a progression in urban architecture.  The arcade is a mindful shift from an orientation to buildings and automobiles, to that of the pedestrian. The arcade brings about a new paradigm where the experience of the pedestrian is considered valuable.  This is important for the continuation of urban planning so as not to alienate the human scale in our own architectural creations.  The oddity is the fact that the arcade has become history, and modern society has left that typology and orientation in favor of the automobile in urban space.

This brings up a point of contention. The arcade was a concrete expression for the need of the urban pedestrian, a need of the market place in the urban environment.  If we see history as a concrete truth of a need, has this need diminished? With suburban sprawl the urban community did diminish and perhaps the need for such pedestrian minded urban planning with it.  In contemporary society, however, we see a shift back to an emphasis on the urban environment. This begs the question whether or not the absolute truth expressed in the arcade is transcendent through time to be truth with the increasing push towards a repopulation the urban place.

[Re]oriented Design – tylerthayer.com – © 2010

Advertisement