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Parasites architecturaux
By : Dupont Blouin
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 15th edition
Discipline : Art & Photography
Categories : Art Projects / Visual art : Gold Certification
Since the 1990s, technology has been evolving at an exponential rate, leaving behind the remnants of its not-so-distant past. Cellular phone antennas, digital television dishes, surveillance cameras, and electrical conduits are grafted onto the roofs and facades of buildings, like parasites contaminating the architecture. They are everywhere to the point of becoming part of the landscape.
With the arrival of the 5G generation of cellular telephony, in Canada alone, 273 thousand new antennas will be needed to support the new network, replacing the 33 thousand existing 4G antennas.
In their practice, DUPONT BLOUIN takes care to integrate structural, mechanical and electrical systems into the interior architecture, but on the exterior of the building, architects must deal with systems that are often unsightly and archaic. Whereas in the days of Gothic architecture gargoyles were architectural elements that were as functional as they were decorative. In the modern era, gutters cling to the roofs of houses as a final detail at the end of the project. The same fate awaits dryer outlets, air vents and air conditioners, whose design has changed very little over the past few decades, appearing as foreign bodies that detract from the building.
Although laws, regulations and codes require technical recommendations regarding the integration of these systems, and municipalities or boroughs establish aesthetic criteria regarding their location, these protrusions continue to grow, appearing larger or smaller depending on the size of the building, disfiguring the facades when they do not damage the envelope.
ARCHITECTURAL PARASITES highlights the drifts of a technology and an industry responsible for a considerable visual and material pollution in order to initiate a reflection for a better integration of these architectural excrescences.
Until then, the communication antennas continue to staple themselves to the facades.
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