The Generic City (S,M,L,XL)

I went to London on New Year's Eve 2008.

It wasn't my first trip to the city but strangely enough I couldn't remember the previous ones. Though I had a really good time there, a feeling of profound unease unsettled me from the very start.
Upon my return to Paris, I started reflecting on it. London is in many ways radically different from Paris. The word “easy” comes to mind. You'll meet mostly foreigners, working in bars, hotels, restaurants, theaters and so on, with whom you'll exchange basic information in a rough stuttering English. Life is concentrated in one small area: one street is home to all the clothes and fashion shops you'll find in any other European capital, another to bars, clubs, theaters and fast food chains. And that's about all you'll experience. Small town meets Broadway.

I stumbled on Rem Koolhaas' article: The Generic city shortly afterwards and was surprised to find it expressing some of the feelings I had experienced in London.

Let's ignore for a moment Koolhaas' sententious tone and take a closer look at his depiction of the generic city, which I find quite interesting – though not really revolutionary.

(Skyscraper in Hamburg)

"The Generic City is on its way from horizontality to verticality. The skycraper looks as if it will be the final, definitive typology. It has swallowed everything else. It can exist anywhere: in a rice field, or downtown - it makes no difference anymore. The towers no longer stand together; they are spaced so that they don't interact. Density in isolation is the ideal."

(Hamburg's fake palm trees, (not) dispensing the much needed shade to gaze longingly at the black waters) .


"Supremely inorganic, the organic is the Generic City's strongest myth"

Things get disturbing when Koolhaas comes to the generic city's identity – or rather the lack thereof.

Chut