Why does architecture currently look so alien?
Why does everything look the same?
Why does every city not speak of the people?
Modernism, dystopia and architecture
Modernity and, its preservation of identity in future design such as Dune.
How did the idea of futuristic architectural simulations emerge into a full fledged dissertation that would later affect the way one looks at architecture? The answer lies within the concept of exploring dystopia, how it emerged and why it emerged around the time that it did.
Upon research that was conducted, the early realisation suggests the reason being that dystopian ideas circulated around a time in which possibilities could expand like it has never before; the industrial revolution was in full motion and modernism started to become the new frontier of future design in the 1920s.
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With this new direction of thinking and designing towards a utopian society, also come the ideas of the opposite; the extreme of where such thinking and ways of living would take humanity away in its process.
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The same research that found dystopian futures in 1984 (1949) and Fahrenheit 451 (1953) also came with the world of Dune (1965) and it was upon this new entity, that the new frontier of the dissertation was established; a world in which identity is preserved by removing the exact cause of problems in the books of the former.
Humanising Dystopian Architecture
Modern Architecture and the conflict in human and cultural identities
Henceforth, it was established that the world of Dune become the frontier in informing cultural and human identities in this dissertation. Upon analysing, reading the books and watching the movie, there were realisations made as to how the human identity informs the culture it inspires in each planet of the Imperium.
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The factors that each world prioritises showcases the difference between those that maintain their humanity and have limited complete technological advancement to rule their way of living; seen on planets Arrakis and Caladan. As opposed to those that have given up their attachment to the human in order to feed their hunger for power and develop ways of living that enhance immobility of the human mind; seen on the planet Geidi Prime.
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Comparing the dystopian future of Dune to our current world, one can't help but notice the discrepancies that Geidi Prime presents as a possible future in comparison to the one presented by Arrakis and Caladan, if we let modernity and its fast industry reduce the immobility of our humanity, will our future be a dystopia that lacks complete humanity?
