Archinect - News2024-05-04T02:44:53-04:00https://archinect.com/news/article/149976710/john-southern-unpacks-the-role-of-the-skyscraper-in-the-21st-century-city-at-a-new-exhibition-at-jai-jai-gallery
John Southern unpacks the role of the skyscraper in the 21st century city at a new exhibition at Jai & Jai Gallery Nicholas Korody2016-11-03T17:57:00-04:00>2016-11-07T23:43:45-05:00
<img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/9n/9n9454wuuimd6v6i.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>In the public imaginary, skyscrapers represent something like the pinnacle of architecture. Cities compete to have the tallest. The most iconic become keychains. Tourists wait for hours—and forfeit cash—to climb to their tops. But according to <a href="http://archinect.com/drowninginculture" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John Southern</a> of <a href="http://archinect.com/firms/people/52674846/urban-operations" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Urban Operations</a>, there is something deeply sinister about the skyscraper and its role in the contemporary city.</p><p>“If the early modernist skyscraper proposals of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe were attempts at utopian urbanity and aesthetic prowess, then today’s towers reflect a darker, more nihilistic attitude toward spatial democracy,” writes Southern in a text accompanying his new exhibit <em>Hot on the Heels of Love: Sensational Speculations</em>, which opens this Saturday at <a href="http://archinect.com/news/tag/620593/jai-jai-gallery" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jai & Jai Gallery</a> in Los Angeles.</p><p>“Packed with every experience and function, and produced in almost every shape and material finish imaginable, the contemporary skyscraper has become a disaffected breeding ground for neoliberal proposals, which reject the op...</p>