The “I” POD: Moving from Community to Territory

With the last passenger Boeing 747 scheduled to rolloff of the assembly-line this year, we are remindedof how a culture of community – represented bythe Pan Am “Sky Lounge” – has given way to asort of “podification” of personal space. This is aphenomenon witnessed in everything from cruiseships, to airplanes; libraries, to autonomous vehicles;Amazon, to the way we use our phones while walkingthrough the city. In architecture, the traditionalSouthern California model of courtyard housing hasgiven way to gated communities, street-facing multicargarages and “podium block” urban development.As the larger implications of this turn from communitybelong in the realm of sociology, this paper will focusinstead on the historic development across architecture,planning and product design, and contrastit with the more public goals of a similar “podification:”that of “Plug-In City” and Metabolism, whichsought greater interaction through the shedding ofpersonal possessions as opposed to the increasingisolation being fostered today.

Volume Editors
Urs Peter Flueckiger & Victoria McReynolds

ISBN
978-1-944214-16-6