Infrastructural Urbanism Literature & Language Essay

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Infrastructural Urbanism
Introduction
The recent decades have witnessed phenomenal advancements in the field of engineering and engineering practice. Despite this progress, Picon (421) posits that there are fundamental questions that have remained unanswered. Problems such as the complex articulation between continuities and discontinuities which depict the history of engineering and the connection between engineering knowledge and practice continue to remain a concern among engineers (421). A typical example of these problems is provided by Easterling (4), where the author talks about subtraction and architectural urbanism. The author argues that demolition is as crucial as the construction of buildings with the recent increase in population shifts, catastrophes, and crises. This new trend has seen heavy machinery, once used to erect building, now being used in bringing them down. In another example, prior to 1960s, universities did not teach historic preservation in their engineering programs (Easterling 1). In the near future, engineering institutions might begin including the infrastructural management and reduction or subtraction. To address these challenges, Picon (421) proposes to delve in engineering rationality, which should not be confused with some form of abstract or generic logic, but needs to be historicized. This paper provides a critical analysis of Antoine Picon and Keller Easterling’s articles in the light of architectural urbanism.
Engineers, Engineering History, and Trends
Engineering knowledge has received rigorous scrutiny from historians of science and technology (Picon 421). As these interrogations into engineering subject continue, two areas remain to be poorly explored: the probable course of engineering development and the link between the social and engineering history. In regards to these issues, Picon is concerned about what modern engineers can &ldq...