The City as Sculpture: From Skyline to Plinth, 2002

The subject, CITY AS SCULPTURE: FROM SKYLINE TO PLINTH raises many questions.

Should we design skylines, or can we only attempt to control them?
I know that Dublin is thinking very hard about this matter right now.

Is it more interesting to leave them to chance?
Chance in the skyline may well reflect Stanley Diamond’s observation:

Civilisation may be regarded as a system in internal disequilibrium; technology or ideology or social organisation are always out of joint with each other – that is what propels the system along a given track. Our sense of movement, of incompleteness, contributes to the idea of progress. (Joseph Kosuth, Art after Philosophy and After)

As an object that man makes, I believe that it is essential that it is considered proactively, both in considering adding to it, as well as deducting from it. Demolition is, as we have all recently witnessed, a significant part of a skyline’s evolution.

If we do feel it important to ‘design’ the skyline, then who should be involved to inform its qualities? There is an absence of sculptors and their sensibilities from the skyline of most cities and this is because they are simply not in the frame of thought of those (with more power) who create the skyline.

Is there an apparent sculptural quality within the city? We all know that lifting one’s eyes much above the ground plane usually means taking a risk with the kinetic activities – whether inorganic or organic!
The interior of the city is kinetic, and can we really escape this?
Is the idea of a still and silent sculpture a necessary antidote to the frenzy?
Is the frenzy simply too overwhelming for sculpture?
Is our inner urban spatial environment more dominated by the highway engineer and the infrastructure companies than the planner or the architect?
Do architects consider the role of sculpture other than as decoration?
Do clients and architects fear empty space – such as a piazza – and consequently ‘fill’ it?

Andy Warhol said of New York’s skyline:
‘When I see the New York skyline, I think only of money.’

Skylines are monuments and monumental. Given their significance, they ought to make us happy.

Skylines are a focal point, and perhaps the future skylines will be more interesting as landscape, technology, architecture and sculpture converge in design thinking and intent and, importantly, when laced with sufficient money from those who harbour beauty as well as ego.

After realising the Concert Platform in Crystal Palace Park, I was asked what the difference between architecture and sculpture is. I replied that the difference between architecture and public sculpture is that the former has functioning toilets.

© 2002 Ian Ritchie