The Generic City
In Dutch architech Rem Koolhaas’s mind, modern cities tend toward The Generic City. The Generic City emerges unplanned; it is soulless devoid of life and individuality. It is “a city without qualities”. It “will work — that’s all”. There is no urbanism, or so he says, there is only ideology. Peter Lindberg summarizes:
The Generic City is a fractal, Koolhaas writes, repeating its shape from laptops up to skyscrapers. Buildings are torn down as they cease to fulfil its purpose. There’s no architecture in the traditional sense: everybody can be an architect. The city has no history, save for one or a few districts where all history has been concentrated. Therefore, in the Generic City everybody is a tourist. Hotels have everything you need – there’s no reason to leave.The generic city is a copy of a copy. It copies itself to become more authentic, making it less so.
Now he’s building one.
“The Generic City”, the essay, was published in a book infamous for its weight and its 1,344 pages. I don’t think I’ll be reading it anytime soon.
I don’t usually just reblog something without comment but I really have nothing to add here. This is just an incredible story if it actually gets built. It’s a unique experiment. Imagine if Le Corbusier’s Radiant City, Frank Llyod Wright’s Broadacre City, or anything Sant’Elia imagined was actually created. That’s what’s going on in Dubai. Pretty amazing.
