makeshift

Editorial: Subtopian Dreams is Tom's thesis project produced at Sheffield University School of Architecture. Tom is a friend of ours - our diplomas overlapping by one year  - so while the rest of us were working on earnest mini-utopias - often blunt expressions of social optimism or naive good intentions, we were forced to witness the birth of this highly legitimate child of brutal wit and razor-sharp rationalism. In short, the project takes the military/industrial complex, what Virilio calls 'Pure War' - and holds a mirror up to it, exposing its intimate relationship to suburban distraction, industrial capitalism and political machevellianism (the carefully constructed infrastructure of ignorance?)- the civilian apparatus to sustain permanent war.  It is an incredible essay not only on design as political commentary, but also on the brutal logic of design in a sense much broader, and in fact much more real than the rather more pious, less threatening version of events that the rest of us tend to surround ourselves with.

Tom writes:

"The fact of having increasingly sophisticated weaponry deters the enemy more and more. At that point war is no longer in its execution, but in its preparation. The perpetuation of war is what I call Pure War, war which isn’t acted out in repetition, but in infinite preparation. "

Paul Virilio & Sylvere Lotringer, Pure War

"The whole of the warring nations are engaged, not only soldiers, but the entire population, men, women and children. The fronts are everywhere to be seen. The trenches are dug in the towns and streets. Every village is fortified. Every road is barred. The front line runs through the factories. The workmen are soldiers with different weapons but the same courage."

Churchill, Winston /On the Radio /June 18 & House of Commons 20 August 1940

The suburbanite is in a state of constant warfare against their neighbours, nature and terrorism. Luckily at the suburbanites command is a whole host of military developed technologies to help them rid all their work surfaces of 99.99% bacteria & maintain a sterile home whilst inadvertently helping to keep the war industries in business. Somehow we have confused the strict military ordering of things with the act of living!

Seeking an optimal performing suburban pattern for the top layer, various network configurations are evaluated on the basis of defense and access. A combination of types becomes the chosen condition that is then mirrored and repeated. Meanwhile, below that cleansers and domestic technologies are being manufactured for consumption. And, yet again, meanwhile below that troops are training in subterranean bunkers for the next call-up. The military-industrial complex and the suburban-industrial complex unified in marital bliss.

For more images or to see Tom's other projects, visit his website. There has also been some interesting commentary on this project here and here.