reading notes

Temporary Contracts: On the economy of the post-industrial landscape
By Ellen Dunham-Jones

Corporate America is ruled increasingly by the concept of temporary contracts. Flexible accumulation, you don’t need to buy for the long run, everything seems temporary. People no longer buy cars they lease them. This way once they don’t like their car anymore they just exchange it for another one. This works with condos and apartments, you have temporary housing that is only under lease from year to year. Even marriage seems to be temporary, with a divorce rate of 60% and only 40% make it long term. What ever happened to now and forever?
Buildings and architecture have taken this toll as well. You see it with the expand of the box stores for sure, look at Winnipeg’s Kenasten Blvd. It was a waste land only six years ago. There was nothing there. Now within the last six years and with the start of a Wal-mart, we have a Safeway, Home Depot, Rona and a Sobey’s, as well as a bunch of other department stores. I can see why there is less and less happening in our downtown area. The landscape has become flat and who wants to work downtown.
“The landscape of the post-industrial economy surrounds us. It presents us with new challenges. We need to wrestle with the question of how architecture- traditionally conceived of as an enduring cultural artifact- might better respond to the culture of the temporary contract?”
What can architecture do to change or make the temporary less damaging and more adaptable?