the environment bubble...

re: reyner banham and francois dallegret's environment bubble, 1965 - a transparent plastic bubble dome inflated by air-conditioning output.

"the two ideas behind this are to give everyone a standard of living package containing all the necessities of modern life (shelter, food, energy, television) and to do away with all the permanent structures of building, and men would not be constrained by past settlements.

the advantage of pushing present tendencies to such extremes is that the extremes indicate possibilities not otherwise exploited and present alternatives in a clear light. perhaps the furthest limit in increasing ephemerality is either religious mysticism, or a mood controlled environment which is induced entirely in the mind - through drugs, and electrodes implanted on the brain. in this situation, all artifacts would disappear entirely and the only thing left would be a contemplative trance having much the same advantage over tangible things that st. bernard pointed out over eight centuries ago.

it may be doubted whether the mood controlled environment was exactly what he was proffering, but there can be no doubt - what with the eight century trend toward a sensate culture and the present possibility of stimulating the pleasure centres of the brain - that certain groups will be tempted to construct it. what exactly it would look like is best left to the imagination."

charles jencks, architecture 2000, 1969