History Archive - The Fox Is Black

How long do the Olympics last? – Thoughts on Olympic architecture

Although the events of the Olympics are ephemeral, the games last only 17 days, the infrastructure that supports the olympic games is more stubborn. There are some exceptions this year, but buildings (along with roads, pipes and other concrete things) don’t typically pack up and leave after the closing ceremonies. So what will be the most stubborn, the most lasting remnant from this year’s games in London? Will it be the sensuous Aquatics Centre? The pokey stadium where so much of the games will take place? Maybe neither. It might end up being the less flashy and less frequently discussed Olympic Village that has the most enduring impact. These are the places where the atheletes stay, and there’s an excellent overview of the history of Olympic Villages on Design Observer, including this interesting tidbit:

“The first Olympic Village was built in 1932, in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, but it was dismantled after the games and virtually no trace survives today.”

The essay talks about the economic potential of these villages, but I’m not sure if the London Olympic Village will become a booming economic neighborhood after the games – in part, because these things can’t really be predicted and in larger part because I went to architecture school and have no idea how money works.

A detail on one of the completed buildings in the Olympic Village caught my eye. Specifically, this athletes housing that was designed by Niall McLaughlin Architects. As you can see in the photo above, the facade is finished with pre-cast concrete panels that feature low-relief motifs taken from the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. It’s a reference to the history of the Olympic games – games that originated in Greece. But because Greece is also known for it’s classical architecture, it might be construed as reminder about the timescale of architecture in the midst of fleeting sporting events. Architecture isn’t a stubborn remainder that’s hard to get rid of, but an enduring accomplishment and artifact about who we are at the time we make it.

Still, it isn’t the nicest reminder since not everyone agrees who should have the Elgin Marbles. And if the Olympic Village becomes derelict in a decade’s time, the thin concrete might be better interpreted as evidence of how prohibitively physical architecture will always be in a world that is now more compelled by things ephemeral and fleeting.

Text by

Alex Dent

July 24, 2012 - See more posts by Alex

The town that gold built and betrayed

Photos by Dustin Wax

These are pictures taken in Rhyolite, Nevada. If you had visited Rhyolite in early January of 1905, you would have found nothing more than two dudes living in a tent. If you had visited Rhyolite two weeks later you would have found a town of 1,200 people hoping to strike it rich. Why the big boost? Gold. The town flourished during a gold rush after high quality ore was discovered at a nearby mine. The town added another 1,200 people over the next six months, and by that point the town was home to “50 saloons, 35 gambling tables, cribs for prostitution, 19 lodging houses, 16 restaurants, half a dozen barbers, a public bath house, and a weekly newspaper.”

Of course this rush could not last. The ore that was once so golden was soon used up. The new ore was crappy. What stands now in the once booming town of Rhyolite is actually barely standing these days. There’s a open air museum just south of the city now, the Goldwell Open Air Museum that has a series of sculptures that look like ghosts (as well as a giant, naked lady made from concrete pixels). The ghostly sculptures seem oddly at home in the desert. But one days these sculptures will rot as well, joining the remains of the town in a scattered heap of dust on the ground.

Text by

Alex Dent

May 16, 2012 - See more posts by Alex

Photographs of the ‘Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale’ by Shane Lynam

'Contour Exotica' - A Photo Series by Shane Lynam

Photographs of the 'Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale' by Shane Lynam

'Contour Exotica' - A Photo Series by Shane Lynam

I hadn’t heard of France’s Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale until discovering the work of Paris-based photographer Shane Lynam. Originally opened in 1907, the gardens were once home to a colonial exhibition, an international event which hoped to boost trade with France’s colonial empires.

It was here that six distinct villages were built – one from Madagascar, one from Congo, one from Sudan, and others from Tunisia, Morocco and Indochine. These villiages were horrifically populated with inhabitants, monuments and product all taken from these territories. In another words, the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale was a ‘human zoo’.

It seems shocking to think that this sort of thing existed, but colonial exhibits were a big part of early 20th Century European history. Indeed, it’s said that one million people attended the 1907 exhibition in Paris, and French historian Pascal Blanchard estimates that one and a half billion people visited universal or colonial exhibits throughout the world from 1870 to 1930.

Today, the Jardin d’Agronomie Tropicale is a different place. Over time, parts have become vandalized and burned. The French authorities simply neglect it. Buildings remain abandoned and the exotic plantations have disappeared altogether.

Despite what you might feel should be done to a place like this, it’s understandable that France has it’s hands tied. If they restore it, many would say that they were paying service to a part of their history that doesn’t deserve to be commemorated. Yet destroying it would feel like they were attempting to cover up their past. And so, for now, it remains. Standing as a ghost town, haunted by the spirits of it’s past.

More photos from Shane’s series can be viewed here.

Text by

Philip Kennedy

February 29, 2012 - See more posts by Philip