[Urban Shocker]

I had lunch at c5 on Friday and - to my horror - saw a model of what Villi By The Ganges will look like. Situated in a long trough in the bar lounge, it sports waving tentacles in what I assume to be appropriately intestinal tones of brown and amber coloured blown glass. There's another version, the colour of deep red blood, outside ki restaurant in Brookfield Place ... which probably requires Dr. Ganja's immediate attention. The good doctor and I can at least agree that, when built, these projects will have the requisite amount of spectacle value.

Private vehicles are banned from USMU city, which has excellent public transit. We welcome refugees from Ganjaville - providing they drop off their pippypoos and doodads at the gates, and we have an excellent 12 step program to integrate them into the world of contemporary design.

Ganjaville:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Ganja_-_Decorated_House.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Shakh_Abbas_Mosque_view.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Nizami_Ganjavi_Museum_-_Baku.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Ganja_archeological_museum.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Ganja_city_hall_close-up.jpg

 

[adma]

Those are healthy looking villi... I don't think that development has coeliac disease.

And contrary to rumours, I am not developing a 'Villi by the Ganja". I am not in favour of goofy developments meant to shock and awe. I'm a traditionalist who believes in the tried and true concepts of pre-WWII city building. You know, people-scaled blocks, walkable neighbourhoods, vibrant streetscapes, all that jazz. This termite colony looks like an incredibly dull place to live. You are correct about attention to detail though. Unpainted undersides of balconies would be banned. Concrete as a cladding material would be banned. Exceptions for its use in small quantities would have to be approved by the Office of GQC (Ganja Quality Control), and violators would be asked to leave the village and relocate down the river to Usmu City (Urban Shocker's Modernist Utopia) where they could drive the wide boulevards around all day and all night, unbothered by pedestrians, to admire the grey boxy landscape.

A man recently ousted from Ganja City for not cladding the concrete pillars of his condominium tower arrives at the gates of Usmu City where he wonders what kind of new life awaits him.

Actually, this might just as well be an alternate parallel...

 

[ProjectEnd]

Nathalie de Vries spoke at AL&D last tuesday and touched on this project. These renders depict the concept which MDRVD presented to a Korean development company, but it is not what will be built. The developers changed the towers to ordinary stacks (no circular gardens) and sanitized many of the communal spaces.

Nathalie was not impressed.