Generic City
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By OMA © All rights reserved
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GG minima, 2006 (first published in S,M,L,XL, 1995) Rem Koolhaas's reflection on the inexorable convergence of global cities and what is left when identity is stripped away. |
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Buy now Paperback: 64 pages Language: Italian ISBN-10: 84-252-2052-1 ISBN-13: 978-84-252-2052-4 Excerpt: Is the contemporary city like the contemporary airport - "all the same"? Is it possible to theorize this convergence? And if so, to what ultimate configuration is it aspiring? Convergence is possible only at the price of shedding identity. That is usually seen as a loss. But at the scale at which it occurs, it must mean something. What are the disadvantages of identity, and conversely, what are the advantages of blankness? What if this seemingly accidental - and usually regretted - homogenization were an intentional process, a conscious movement away from difference towards similarity? What if we are witnessing a global liberation movement: "down with character!" That is left after identity is stripped? The Generic? |
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