REchitecture - a reflection of contemporary culture and art on architecture

The industrial revolution gives rise to the epoch of the consumer society and consumerism. Mass production lowers products prices significantly; products that were once unaffordable and unattainable became common for most households. However, this led to a change in the culture of the society. An interesting example of this phenomenon is the refrigerator that completely changes the way we store food and drinks in our homes. We can find yet another example in the literature – especially the one that deals with running a household.  Again, due to mass production, many of the book advices regarding how to do a house chore have become unneeded. Today, we don’t have to do preserves for the winter because you can find relatively high quantity of various fresh groceries in the stores at a low price, during all seasons.  Constant consumption has become the driving engine of the new society. People even buy products they don’t need in order to appear as more affluent, powerful, or belonging to a higher social class.

Post industrial revolution technology development, as well as the rise of the consumer society has led to a number of changes in the architectural solutions. The high density of the working population and insufficient size of the available living area in the cities has led to the design of the apartment buildings. The electricity invention, leading behind the creation of variety of household appliances, has rearranged our functional living environment. The novelties – gramophone, refrigerator, radio and the computer (largely introduced at a much later point in time) – all require their space in the architectural environment. In the beginning, the novelty products were built from known and easily recyclable materials. However, in the course of novelty products’ development, their component materials soon became such that are hard to recycle. This phenomenon, as well as the gaining power of consumerism, especially after WWII, changed inside out the society’s attitude towards products and their subsequent transformation to waste.

Global pollution gained people’s attention at the end of 20^th century. Popular culture drew some conclusions regarding the future if the same levels of consumption and ignorance towards ecological issues remain.  Movies, such as “Mad Max” and “Waterworld” convey an apocalyptical feeling and manifest the possibility and necessity to find a practical use of waste materials and include them in the surrounding environment and even construction.   The following introduction to documentary TV shows and TV channels even led to a change in people’s habits.  Answering people’s needs, these shows started producing numerous programs related to the idea of make-it-yourself – concepts that the previous generation was trying to escape from. It makes an impression that many of the shows are directed towards and project the use of used materials in the household. Examples of such shows are ScrapHeap Chalange, among others. The necessity for reestablishing a more natural way of living is manifesting in literature on running a household, dominated by the concepts of doing savings and giving unneeded products a second chance.   The consumer society culture also experienced some changes. This is mostly visible in the textile industry where second-hand clothing is becoming more and more popular.

In general, popular visual arts and music directly reflect social culture and trends. Artists often look at the different, extravagant, provoking and shocking, to express ideas. This makes waste as a powerful means for many artists, as we are familiar with multiple art installations, stimulating our consciousness and directing us towards the problems inside the society.  On the other hand, having in mind that architecture combines art and functionality, it also responds to the examples of the numerous other social and cultural spheres, though often at a slower pace.

Rechitecture – this is architecture that works against consumer society; design using already used products and materials as a commonly acceptable, non- polluting building element.   

Discovering the material called “waste” as an element in construction is still hard and controversial, even though the conceptual definition of “waste” is a product of this same consumer society.  

The interest is directed towards the idea, that despite the social common think, driven by past, post-industrial revolution common culture, the usage of waste materials in architecture and architectural design is becoming trendy and a pop-tendency in modern architecture.