The Next Step

The pervasiveness of thematized environments has reached a dangerous level – a level where we no longer seem to notice (or worse, care) upon entering one. Obviously, varying degrees of departure from “the norm” will elicit differing degrees of wonder, bewilderment, or outright rejection, but we must consider whether the appearance of the manipulated narrative experience is due exclusively to the increased “commercial savvy” of the entertainment industry from the 19th to 20th century. Our culture is fast becoming (broad generalization coming) one of commercial expectation – one of themed one-upping which demands an increasingly themed environment for increasingly themed (branded) people (NikeTown, for the athlete). Whether this is for “maintaining wellness,” as in the themed hospital environment, or for a more discreet branding strategy, one thing seems for certain: now that we’ve come this far, we can’t go back. Such a distillation of the essence of the “here and now” is troubling, especially when we are called to design in it…if the process of design is a kind of innovation grounded in the present, then the idea of designing in a specific theme, utilizing specific tactics for specific ends, is a daunting one. My natural reaction is against this trend, but ultimately the role played by the architect on the world’s stage will more than likely be that of a facilitating agent.