Abstract:
BOWLING FOR BOOMERS seeks to contextualise the conflicted position of the Baby Boomer demographic through a series of theoretical essays. These essays mine the ideologies and history of the Baby Boomers in an effort to understand their position within the contemporary city. Interrogating the political and economic structures of the last forty years, these essays seek to define the Baby Boomer demographic in relation to the forces of neoliberalism, privatization and individualism:- as both the instigators and the affected. THE NEW-OLD describes how the Baby Boomer’s individualism is redefining previous generational approaches to ageing and how it has influenced the emergence of a “Third-Age”, an era characterized by the pursuit of personal freedom through consumption and leisure. This essay highlights the need for architecture to propose new ways of negotiating space within a demanding context increasingly discussed along generational lines. MANUFACTURING COMMUNITY discusses the commodification and commercialization of community through an analysis of The Villages, Disney’s town of Celebration and Auckland’s Masonic Village. And further questions the validity of community in an era of growing individualism through a literature review of sociologists Robert D. Putnam and Eric Klinenbergs’ research. DEFAULT NEOLIBERALISM describes a market fundamentalism that defines the contemporary city and governs western politics. This essay argues that despite the current economic crisis neoliberalism remains the dominant ideology and will shape the negotiation between the State and the individual. THE CAPITALIST COMMONS interrogates the current politics of space within the neoliberal city, focussing on how the elevation of the individual’s right to profit and a belief in the inalienable right to private property have defined space economically and resulted in an enclosure of the commons. PRODUCTIVE CRISIS describes the marked transformation in cultural practice in the post-war era, specifically the shift from modernist to post-modernist ideals provoked by the economic instability of the 1970s. This essay examines architectural production in relation to capital, a growing awareness of the dependence of architecture on capital, and in its absence, a possible architectural repositioning. These essays are presented as independent enquiries, but together they frame a design that seeks a relevant urban condition for the individualistic Baby Boomers. Discussed as an architecture of anxiety, the conflict and contradiction that is read in BOWLING FOR BOOMERS is a result of an unease in addressing concerns outlined in these essays. * Disclaimer: this is not a bowling club for Baby Boomers