//Genesis, or Involuntary Freedom in the Absence of Architecture
Are We There Yet; Fourty Five Years of Tabula Rasa... now what? by Lennard Ong 1st October 2010
Fairy Tales: an Overture Once, a dirty and messy situation was made into a clean and orderly promise. Precarious living conditions were rationally repackaged into solidified blocks for living, working and playing, respectively. Through expert global maneuvering, economic stagnation became universal prosperity. Wildness was neatly quarantined and inoculated against any possible illness or harm to the inhabitants. The island was an airtight masterpiece that couldn’t be argued against. It was so airtight, in fact, that no one had any space to breathe. With scant tolerance for the alternative, a new illness was diagnosed: boring pepole. Really, no one was to blame: there wasn’t a real lack of anything. For animals, they had a zoo. To eat, there were demarcated areas and for fun, there was a smaller themed island. What was wrong? Every act of architectural planning was met with indifference, proving its innocence (or impotence?). All its people wanted was more “more”. But came a point when more and more, more just isn’t more anymore. Economists call it the Law of Diminishing Returns. Self-similar propriatery architectural islands, a flock of sheep in wolf’s clothing, provocatively harmless to the status quo.