THE CITY AS RUINS, THE RUIN CITY:
RESISTING THE URGE TO RE -PLAN -VISION -DESIGN -LOCATE -WRITE -WHITE
Urbanism Studio
Architecture Instructor: Aaron Betsky
Ceramics Advisors: Katie Parker & Guy Davis
Spring 2014
*UIA HYP-CUP 2014 International Student Competition
*Finalist Prize
Joseph Gandy’s representation of Soane’s Bank of England as ruins was an attempt to strip away the formidable architectural vision built on capitalism and politics in order to reveal both the spatial and sociopolitical elements within the confines of the image. This ruined state of architecture creates a vision that transcends time, and one does not know if this is a depiction of a remembered past, present conditions, or an impending future - it is a moment frozen in an unknown time. Much like the ruins of Stonehenge, the ruined vision of Lady Liberty in Franklin J. Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes (1968), or Hubert Robert’s ruined Louvre in Paris, this slippage of time allows a different perspective of the “present” conditions.
This phenomenon of the ruin is then applied to the “present” of Over-The-Rhine (OTR), located in Cincinnati, Ohio. OTR is a true depiction of an architectural and urban palimpsest. Whether it is the ancient strata of earth the city was built upon, the deterioration of the original urban grid, the layers of failed infrastructural projects, or the ghostly traces of architectural elements scarred on the surfaces of buildings, the decaying urban condition has begun to depict the city as ruins. Further, the current situation of developer-driven gentrification has begun to shape this area’s image through an uninspired architectural “new”. Displacement, resurfacing, infill, reprogramming, and ultimately demolition and new building are all methods being utilized in order to “revitalize” the image of OTR. However, this has lead to a moment of socio-urban confusion that has begun to exude a different type of socio-economic image. This has been ingrained within Cincinnati through its history of race riots and constant social tensions, and this begs the question: will OTR be another product of re-writing (-whiting) of urban trends, or could it possibly meander off such a predictable path?
Thus, the concept of ruin is applied to OTR in order to capture a moment(s) in time. Instead of typically trying to impose a condition or create an additive attitude toward the “new” or “revitalized” city, we choose the route of an anti-architecture, which is subtractive rather than additive, and slowly allow this process to reveal the true layers and hidden grit embedded in the city. No longer will unsure promises of false hopes be the justification of new architecture for the “revitalization” process; rather, the ultimate decay of the fragmented urban condition as a collective whole will create an inverse and possibly new perspective of The City as Ruins, The Ruin City.
