Take-Home Final, Part 1: Essay

Sean Harrison
Film 314
Take-Home Final
New Worlds / New Identities

In both the case of the ‘Les Olympiades’ building in Paris and the Spanish city of Elche, there has been a major transformation brought about by globalization. In Paris, the influx of one culture into another has caused a sort of new, flourishing hybrid culture. In Elche, regional expansion of a major industry has streamlined the entire city into a networked, yet individualistic assembly line. Both of these cases demonstrate how the ever-expanding and interweaving global community has made a significant mark on even the smallest components of a larger world.
Within the ‘Les Olympiades’ building, the migration and growth of the Chinese population has turned the complex into its own society – a veritable and self-sustaining Chinatown within Paris, but all contained in a single structure. This Chinese minority, through self-motivation, transformed the once-abandoned residential complex into a condensed city complete with operating apartments, restaurants, workshops, temples, supply warehouses, and more. As mentioned by Y. Dubalin in his essay, ‘Les Olympiades’ is not an isolated instance. It seems as though many peripheral public districts in European cities see a similar metamorphosis of large residential and economic complexes. These often-shunned concrete giants discover a new functionality in the housing and expansion of new cultural inhabitants. A paradox exists because one would not think that these buildings with such a rigid outer appearance could possibly support the drastic assimilation and alteration taking place within. Y. Dubalin writes, “By becoming multifunctional organisms, as the cost of minor movements of boarding and internal spaces, these large ‘concrete dinosaurs’ demonstrate the capacity to incorporate mutation and assimilate new populations better than any architect inspired by the rhetoric of ‘flexibility’” (1). It’s interesting to consider the buildings as an ‘organism,’ as such a claim suggests that the structure itself is like a living ecosystem that is able to accommodate new inhabitants on a metaphorical ‘genetic’ level (by changing from within but keeping the same outward appearance). The domestic and work spaces within ‘Les Olympiades’ are merged together, appearing to have little distinction. The upper levels still serve as living spaces while the lower levels accommodate business – many of the residents living above presumably work below all within a single building. There is a great level of convenience and familiarity to this setup, especially for those who live and work in the complex. A possible disadvantage to this setup could be isolation. By having everything one might need to exist all within one structure, that person might be deterred from ever leaving the building all together, which could result in feelings of separation from the rest of not just Paris but the world. The restaurant owner Wand Shixiong even says, “You can find anything. You can imagine never leaving at all” (1).
In the city of Elche, Spain, the vital shoe industry has expanded to a point where it includes the entire city, as opposed to just a few industrial buildings. Because of the growing product export to Germany and Northern Europe, Elche’s shoe industry has not only grown itself, but has completely transformation the way in which its products are made. Domestic workspaces have become commonplace throughout Elche, in which people are able to serve as one stop on a massive assembly line as semi-finished products are transported from one home to another. The urban landscape of Elche is thus rearranged in that the industrial district is no longer its own contained spatial entity; instead, the industrial district has become the rest of the city, with its pillars resting in the domestics of the residential areas. In this way, the city works more a single force, with its individual parts working towards a greater sum – each part supporting the whole. This supports Multiplicity’s claim that Elche is a “network of production points that embraces the entire city” (2). The overlapping of domestic spaces and work spheres becomes blurred in Elche because of the very nature of the changing shoe industry. Gender plays a major role in the industry as most of the workers are women. Multiplicity writes, “The explosion of the domestic work produced a new unexpected mobilization in the traditional role of the housewife, responsible for cooking and cleaning, along with child-bearing and-raising… Many women consider this domestic employment an advantageous opportunity for the flexible use of their free time… The possibility of not having to choose between domestic commitments and permanent work is therefore often seen as a prize” (2). This adds a new dimension to the gender dynamics of factory labor. In Elche, this work done by women seems less stringent and more accommodating to the individual. One of these domestic shoe industry workers, Vicentina Navarro, says, “It’s a comfortable job because when you have time you can keep going. It’s different when you must go to a factory” (2).

ENDNOTES
(1) Dubalin, Y. et. al. “A City in a Building: Paris Subversions.” USE: Uncertain States of Europe. Ed. Susan Wise. Milan: Skira Editore S.p.a., 2003. 80-87.

(2) Multiplicity. “House Factories: Elche Disseminations.” USE: Uncertain States of Europe. Ed. Susan Wise. Milan: Skira Editore S.p.a., 2003. 150-157.

Take-Home Final, Part 2: Google Earth Images

Image One: Paris and Elche at a distance.


Image Two: Zoomed Les Olympiades.


Image Three: Zoomed Elche, Spain.


Image Four: Photo overlay of Les Olympiades.


Image Five: Photo overlay of Elche, Spain.