AMAZONIA PIER
Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure
Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure
“Come experience the Amazon, without 'going into' the Amazon!”
In the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, lies the city of Manaus, a city of 2 million people who owes much of its survival to its Free Trade Zone, yet at what cost?=
Amazonia Pier is a phantasmagorical critique of the Free Trade Zone of Manaus, proposing a speculative reinterpretation of the Zone's industrial belt into a pier of pleasure, and forming a new industrial park at the city’s central harbor, hybridizing the mechanical manufacturing processes of industry with the mechanics of amusement rides, juxtaposing themes of consumerism, manufacturing, tourism and pleasure.
"The park itself is divided into three islands for each of the main steps of the products’ making process. The Island of Testing…The Island of Production… And the Island of Assembly. The park stretches its reach right into the city where at its end you have the opportunity to embark on a gondola ride to see the Pier and the city from the point I see it from, high in the sky."
"The city of Manaus owes much of its survival to the development of a Free Trade Zone in 1967, when the city had fallen to sullen depths following the great Rubber Boom crash of the late 19th century. Yet, the city has bounced back and is doing wonderful!* This, of course, is in no small part due to our Free Trade Zone and the conglomerate of over 600 companies – many of which being large international corporations you may recognize – which we have managed to attract over the nearly 50 years of the zona’s existence."
* We are legally obliged to mention some quick statistics: Only 1/5 of our population have no access to sewage. A tiny 1/4 live in extreme poverty, and a minuscule 1.3 live without access to clean drinking water!
"Amazonia Pier is very proud and pleased to generously give back to the city that has been its host for so many years. The good people of Manaus wait for the grand event, the free goods *transference* as we call it , although sporadic, is not something you’ll want to miss. So you shouldn’t leave for too long because you never know when the next batch will come."
The wonders of the Amazon, may not be what you would expect. It might come as a surprise to know that in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, lies a metropolis of over 2 million people. A city who owes its survival to a Free Trade Zone, who’s strong industrial presence in the rainforest goes far beyond self-sufficiency, but has deep ties to the surrounding region, the country, and its international relations.
Amazonia Pier is a phantasmagorical critique of the Free Trade Zone of Manaus, proposing a speculative reinterpretation of the Zone's industrial belt into a pier of pleasure, and forming a new industrial park at the city’s central harbour. This new industrial park challenges the relationship of the consumer versus the consumed and intertwines the former into the latter production process, hybridizing the mechanical manufacturing processes of industry with the mechanics of amusement rides, juxtaposing themes of consumerism, manufacturing, tourism and pleasure.
Amazonia Pier is a phantasmagorical critique of the Free Trade Zone of Manaus, proposing a speculative reinterpretation of the Zone's industrial belt into a pier of pleasure, and forming a new industrial park at the city’s central harbour. This new industrial park challenges the relationship of the consumer versus the consumed and intertwines the former into the latter production process, hybridizing the mechanical manufacturing processes of industry with the mechanics of amusement rides, juxtaposing themes of consumerism, manufacturing, tourism and pleasure.
In this industrial park, the patron becomes an essential part, even a dependant one, of the manufacturing process while riding the attractions of the park. Where the narrative of the good being produced and that of the patron/producer are intertwined, challenging the two’s relationship to each other during the making process but also during that of consumption. In that sense Amazonia Pier not only critiques large industry and the role it plays in foreign places, but also the role the consumer has in the same spectacle of consumption.
