Abbas’ (2003) article offers a critique of globalization from the lenses of architecture and cinema. In this response, I’d like to humbly comment on his notion of the Generic City.
The city that overperforms its “legibility” and “imageability”, in other words, that obsesses over architectural recognizability, ironically becomes the “Generic City”. Koolhaas argues that the Generic City has “overcome any fixation on identity”, implying that it is void of personality by choice. Looking back at my experiences of touring Shenzhen and Guangzhou – Tier 1 cities of China that embody the country’s modernization – it seems other than the varied lived experiences, the cities appear the same.
Is this homogeneity inherently negative? I believe that “genericism” is a natural process that any city undergoing globalization must experience. The merger of different cultures, peoples, and lifestyles in the globalized city transcend “any history that might define [the city’s] identity”; thus, the Generic City is also the New City, calling for a new form of architecture unconfined by any cultural identity.
Kwong Hoi Shan, 3035663588
Reference: Abbas, M. A. (2003). Cinema, Cities and the Cinematic. In Global cities: Cinema, architecture, and urbanism in a digital age (pp. 142-156), edited by Krause, L., and Petro, P. New Brunswick, NJ; London: Rutgers University Press.
The theme of transcendence beyond certain limitations is discussed by Abbas through exorbitant city and generic city. To elaborate further on the latter, Abbas used the “cyber kung fu” from Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger to discuss the “liberation from the obsession with identity can be related to the liberties the film implicitly takes with time frames and the limitations of the body” (Abbas, 150). The urbane blasé attitude from image bombardment of cities and homogeneity are often pejorative associations with Generic City but you argued that homogeneity is inevitable in future city development. In your view, do you think there is still room for conservation / preservation of a city’s history, identity, and culture in future developments of cities?