Sabrina Ho--junk places

     One of the concepts explained by Rem Koolhaas is "junk places." Simply speaking, these are places/buildings/areas that are born out of capitalism, such as malls, airports, and other large buildings.  The analysis goes that these areas are empty spaces intended to cut people out from the outside world, and only serve for their particular function, and not for anything that we truly need (connection, relationships, deeper understanding, etc). He explains how this is one of many concepts rising from capitalism that focus more on convenience and surface-level pleasures, as opposed to the things that people are truly desiring.

    This is really similar to the class we had on technology, such as clocks. Clocks serve a very specific function, yet the concept of numerical time is man-made in itself. However, we now abide so heavily to a clock, and we separate ourselves from the natural sleep-wake cycles that our bodies used to easily create based off nature around us. Certain technologies and junk places have therefore made us more "empty" in the sense that we are deprived of our innate needs, and focus more on these materialistic, temporary desires. However, we have evolved so much since the start of such consumption, is it possible for us to revert back to a time where these junk places are no longer a necessity? As Koolhaas says, these junk places rob us from getting any deeper connection with true nature and wilderness, thus separating us further from human nature. But humans have obviously strayed quite far from our roots, and it poses the conversation of if getting rid of these junk places would cause more harm than good, since our species has built a heavy dependence on them.