MEGASTRUCTURE (continued)
I went out to investigate that Zone where concrete rips into the earth, and from thereon wandered back through the micro-districts causing this pattern of earthy scar tissue. I finally became truly conscious of this city I live in, and came under its spell of monotony of shape and color, of stark revoke of individualism, and of Modernistic street-phobia - that denial of the social value of the street as fundamental element of the urban structure. I was by turns puzzled and thrilled by the bizarre rhythms of the randomly dispersed housing blocks that fail to create streets and boulevards in any clear urban idea. The whole suddenly seemed to result from a creative system embracing at once controlled chance and even failure. I finally fell for the Soviet city's disturbed minimalism.
February 2005
