all conditional space turns into junkspace ....

When we
think about space, we have only looked at its
containers. As if space itselfis invisible, all theory for
the production of space is based on an obsessive
preoccupation with ils opposite: substance and
objects, i.e., architecture. Architects couJd never
explain space; Junkspace is our punishment for their
mystifications. OK, lct's talk about space then. Thc
beauty of airports, especially after eah upgrade. The
luster of renovations. The subtlety of the sh0pping
center. Let's explore public spac;:e, discover casinos,
spend time in theme parks .... Jmikspace is the b0dy
dou ble of s pace, a territory of impaired vision, limi red
expectation, reduced earnestness. junkspace is a
Bermuda lriangle of concepts, a pe tri dish abanclonecl:
it cancels distinctions. undermines resolve. confuses
intention with realization. It replaces hierarchy with
accumulation, composition with addition. More and
more, more is more. junkspace is overripe and
undernourishing at the same time, a colossal security
blanket that covers the earth in a stranglehold of
care .... Junkspace is like being condemned to a
perpetualJacuzzi with millions ofyour bestfriends .... A
fuzzy empire ofblur, it fu ses high and lovv, public and
private. straight and bent, bloated and starved to offer
.a seamless patchwork of the permanently disjointe:d.
Se:emingly an apotheosis, spatially grandiose, the
effect ofitsrkhness is a terminal hollowness, a vicious
parody of ambition that systematically erodes the
credfility of building--. possibly fo,rever.... Space was
created by piling matter0n top ofmatter, cemented to
forma solid new whole.Junkspace is additivc, laycrcd

and lightweight, not articulated in different parts bur

subdivided, quartered thc way a carcass is torn apartindividual chunks severed from a universal condition.
There are no vvalls, only partitions, shimmering
membranes frequently covered in "mjrror Qr gold.
Structure groans invisibly underneath decoration, or
w.orse, has bernme ornamental; small shiny space
frames support nominal loads, or huge beams deliver
cyclopic burdens to unsuspecting clestinations .... The
arch, once the workhorse ofstructures, has become the
depleted emblem of "community," welcoming an
infinity of virtual populations to non'-xistent there's.
Where it is absent, it is simply applied - mostly in
stucco - as ornamental afterthought on hurriedly
erected superblocks. Junkspace's iconography is 13%
Roman. 8%Bauhaus. 7% Disney (neck and neck), 3%Art
Nouveau, followed closely by Mayan .... Like a substance
that could llave condnscd in any other form,
junkspace is a domain of feigned, simulaled order, a
kingdom of morphing. Its specific configuration is as
fortuitous as the geometry of a snowflake. Patterns
imply repetition or ultimately decipherable rules;
Junkspace is beyond measure, beyond code .... Bccause
it cannot be grasped, . Junkspace cannot be
remembered. It is flamboyantyet unmemorable, like a
screensave'F; its refusal to freeze ensures instanr
amnesia.- Junkspace does not pretend to create
perfection. only interest. Its geomerries are
unimaginable, only makeable. J\lthough stricrly nonarchitectural, it tends to the vaulted, to the Dome.
Sectiqns seem to be devoted to utterJnerrness. orne: ~
in pcrpetual rhetorical turmoil: the deadest .resides

next to the mosl hysterical. Themes cast a pall of

arrested development over interiors as big as the
Pantheon, spawning stillbirths in cvcry cerner. The
aesthetic is Byzantine, gorgeous and dark, splintercd
in ro rhousands ofshards, ali visible ar rhc same time: a
quasi-panoptical universe in which all contents
rearrange themselves in splil-seconds around the dizzy
cye of the beholder. Murals used to show idols;
Junkspace's modules are dimensioned to carry brands;
myths can be shared, brands husband aura at the
merey of focus gro u ps. Bra nds in junkspace perform
the same role as blacl< holes in the universe: essences
through which meaning disappears .... The shiniesL
surfaces in the hisrory ofmankind reflect human ity at
its most casua l. The more we inhabit rhc palatial, the
more we seem to dress down. A stringent dress code last spasm of etiquette? - governs access LO Junkspace:
short. sneaker. sandal, shell suit, fic en~. jean, parka,
backpack. As if the People suddenly acccssed rhe
priva te quarters ofa dicta tor, Ju n kspace is best enjoyed
in a state ofpost-revolutionary gawking. Polarities have
merged, there is nolhing left benveen desolation and
frenzy. Neon signifies both the old and the ncw:
interiors rcfer to the Stone and the Spacc Age at the
same time. Like the deactivated yirus in an
inoculation, Modern architecture remains essential,
but oulyin its moststerile manifestation, High Tech (it
seemed so deacl only a dccade ago!). It exposes what
previous generations kepr under wraps: structures
emerge like springs from a mattre,<;s, exit stairs dangle
in didaclic trapcze, pro bes thrust into space to deliver
laboriouslywhat is in fact omnipresent, free air, acres
of glass hang from spidcry cables, tautly stretched
skins endose tlaccid non-events. Transparency only
rcvea1s everything in which you cannot partake. At the
sound of midnight ir ali may reverl Lo Taiwancse
Gothic, in rhree years segue into Nigerian Sixties,
Norwegian Chalet or dcfault Christian. Ear thlings now
live in a kindergarten groresque .... Junkspace thrives
on design, but design dies in Junkspace. There is no
form. only proliferation .... Regurgitation is the new
creativity; instead of crearion, we honor, cherish and
embrace manipulation .... Superstrings of graphics.
transplanted emblems of franchise and sparkling
infrastructurcs of light, LEDs, and video describe an
aurhorless world beyond anyone's claim. always
unique , utterly unpredictablc, yet intensely familiar.
Junkspace is hor (or suddenly arctic); fluorescentwalls,
folded like melring stained glass, generare additional
hear ro raise Lhe tempera tu re of Junkspace ro levels
whereyou could cultivate orchids. Pretending histories
left and right, its contcnts are dynamic yet stagnant,
recycled or multiplied as in doning: forms scarch for
164

funcrion like hermit crabs for a vacanr .s~:-;-=;

__
junkspace sheds architectures like a reptilc ~~~
skins, is rcborn every Monday m orning. ~-: p_e.....,_
building, materiality was based on a final sra2 -- ;.:
could o nly be modified at rhe expense vf p~~
destruction. AL the exact moment that our cul~ abandoned repetition and regulariry as : e?:-c:m;::
building materials have become more am: =---=
modular, unitary and standardized; sub,-::a:i~
comes predigitized .... As the module beco~ ~ mi= and smaller, its status become rhat of a c~-pL.c~~
With enormous difficulty - budger. a:~- :-.negotiation, deformation-inegularity and uniq e~
are constructed from identical elemenrs. insi:.:2.=
trying to wrcst order from chaos, the picrure~cr.:2
is wrested from the homogcnized. the "'!~ ,__
liberatecl from the standardized .... Architeccs Ll:::::::::of Junkspace first and named it Megasrrucrure. -.:-final solution to transcend their huge impasse ~
multiple Babels, huge superstructures wouL fu_
t h rough eternit:y, teeming wich impe~~ ...-su bsystems tha t would mu ta te over time, beyonci "-=con trol. In Junkspace, rhe tables are turneci: :t subsystems only, wirhout supersrructure. orp~~-e.:.
particles in search of framcwork or pa rrern..-materialization is provisional: cutting, benc: , _
tearing, coating: construction has acquired a =
softness. like tailoring .... Th e joint is no lon,;-c:
problem, an intcllecrual issue: transirional mo:::.211~
are defined by stapling and taping, wrinkly b~-=.
bands barely maintain the illusion of an unb:o:..-=-surface; verbs unknown and unthinkab:e architectural h istory clamp, stick. fold, dump. g! =
shoot, clouble, fusc - have become indispensable. Eac
elemcnt performs its task in negotiated isolatio:::..
vVhere once cletailing suggested the coming roge2:
possibly forever, of disparare matcrials. ir is no- ~
rransient coupling, waiting to be undone, unscrew-ed.
a temporary embrace vvith a high probability o.:
separation; no longer the orchestrated encounrer of
difference, but the abrupt end ofa system , a staJe1112:.c..
Only rhe blind. reading its fault lines wi th rhe::fingertips, will evcr understand Junkspacc's histories
While whole millennia worlced in favor e:
permanence, axialities, relationships and proporrion_
the program of junkspace is escalation. lnstead -.:
dcvclopment, it offers enrropy. necause it is endlcss. ~
always leaks somewhere in Junkspace; in the wors
case, monumental ashtrays catch inrermittent cto:p'
in a gray broth .... When did rime stop moving forwa.:-~
begin to spool in cvery direction, like a tape spinni='"'
out of control? Since the introduction ofReal Time~'"'"
Change has becn divorced from thc idea e:

improvemenl. There is no progress; likc a crab on LSD,

culture sraggers endlessly sideways .... The average
contemporary lunch box is a microcosm ofjunkspace:
a fctvcnr semanLics ofhealth- slabs ofeggplant, topped
by thick layers of goat cheese - cancelled by a colossal
cookie ar the bo LLom .... Junkspace is draining and is
drained in return. Everywhere injunkspace there are
seating arrangements, ranges of modular chairs, even
couchcs, as if the experience junkspace offers its
consumers is significantly more exhausting than any
previous spaLial sensation; in its mosr ahandoned
stretches, you find buffers: ulilitarian tables draped in
white or black sheets, perfuncrory assemblies of
caffcinc and calories- couage cheese. muffins, unripe
grapes - notional representations of plenl)', without
horn and withoutplenty. Eachjunkspace is connected,
sooncr or later, to bodily functions: wedged between
stainless-steel partirions sit rows of groaning Romans,
denim togas bunched around Lheir huge sneakers ....
Because it is so intensely consumcd. junkspace is
fanatically mainrained, the nighl shift undoing the
damage of the day shift in an endless Sisyphcan re play.
As you rccover from Junkspace, junkspace recovers
from you: bet\.veen 2 and 5 am, yet another population,
this one heartlessly casual and app rcciably darker, is
mopping, hovering, sweeping, toweling. resupplying... .
j unkspace does not inspire loyalty in its cleaners ... .
Dedicatecl to instant gratificarion, Junkspace
accommodatcs sceds of fulure perfection; a language
of apology is woven through irs texturc of canned
euphoria; "pardon our appearance" signs or miniaturc
yellow "sorry" hillboards mark ongoing palches of
werness, announce momentary discomfort in return
for immincnt shine, Lhe a1lure of improvement.
Somewhere. workers sink on rhcir lmees ro repair
fadcd secrions - as if in a prayer - or half-disappear in
ceiling voids to negoriare elu sive malf nction - as if in
confession. All surfaces are archaeological,
superposi rions of differenl "periods" ('.vhat do you call
the moment a particular typc ofwall-to-wall carpet was
current?) - as you note when they're torn ....
Traditionally. typology implics dcmarcarion, the
definition of a singular mude! that excludes other
arrangements.Junkspace represents a reverse typology
of cumularive, approximative identity, less about kind
than about quantity. But formlessness is still form, the
formless also a typology.... Take the dump, where
successive trucks discharge their loads to forma heap,
whole in spite ofthc randomness of irs contents and its
fundamental shapelessness, or that f the tentenvelopc that assumes different shapes to
accommodate variable interior vol u mes. - Gr the
amorphous ero tehes of the new generation. Junkspace

can either be absolutely chaotic or frighteningly

asepric - like a best-seller - overdetermined and
indeterminate at the samc rime. There is something
srrange about ballrooms, for instance: huge wastelands
kept column-free fr ultim.atc flexibiliry. Because
you've never been invi ted to that kind of event, you
ha ve never seen t h cm in use, only being pre pared wilh
chilling precision: a relentless grid of circular tables,
cxtcnding towards a disLant horizon, their diameters
preempting commun ica rion. a dais big enough for the
polirburo of a totalitarian stare. vvings announcing as
yer unimagincd surprises - acres of organization to
support future drunkenness. disarray and disordcr. Or
car shows .... Junkspace is often described as a space of
flows . but that is a misnomcr; flows depend on
disciplined movement, bodies that cohere. Jun ksparc
is a web without spider; allhough it is an architecture
of the masses, each rrajcctory is strictly unique. Its
anarchy is onc of the lasr tangible ways in which we
experience freedom. lt is a space of collision. a
container ofatoms, busy, not dense .... There is a special
\vay of moving injunkspace, ar the same time aimless
and purposeful. lt is an acquired culture. Junkspace
fearures the tyranny of thc oblivious: somelimes an
enlire Junkspace comes unstuck through thc nonconformiryof one ofits rnembers; a single citizen of an
another culture - a rcfugee, a mor her - can destabilize
an enlire Junkspace, hold it to a rustic's ransom.
leaving an invisible swarh of obstruction in his/her
wake , a deregulation eventually communicated to its
furrhcst extremities. \Nhere movement becomes
synchronized, it curdles: on escalators, near exits,
parking machines, automated tellers. Sornetimes,
under durcss, individ uals are channeled in a flow,
pushed through a single door or forced to ncgotia te
rhc gap benveen two lemporary obstacles (an invalid's
bleeping chariot anda Christrnas trcc): rhc manitest ill
will such narrowing provokes, mocks the notion of
fl mvs. Flows injunkspace lead ro disaster: department
stores at the beginning of sales, th c stampcdes
triggered by warring c:ompartments of soccer fans,
dead bodies piling up in front ofthe locked eniergenry
doors of a disco: evidence of the misfiLbetween the
portals ofjunkspace and the narrow calibrations ofthe
old world. Theyoung instinctively avoid the Dantesque
manipulations/containers ro which Junkspace has
conclemned their elders in perpetuity. Within che
m cra-playground of Junkspace exist smaller
playgrounds, Junkspace for children (usually in rhe
leasl desirable square footage) : sections of sudden
miniaturization - oftcn underneath slaircases, always
near dead ends - assemblies of under-dimensioned
plastic srrucrnres-slides, seesaws, swings -shunnecl by
165

their intended audience -kids - turned into junkniche

for the old, the lost. the forgonen, the insane ... last
hiccup of humanism .... Traffic is junkspace, from
airspace to [be subway: the entire highway system is
Junkspace, a vast polenlial ulupia clogged by its users,
as you notice when they've finally disappeared on
vacation .... Like radioactive waste, junkspace has an
insidious half-life. Aging injunkspace is nonexistent or
catastrophic; somctimes an entire junkspace - a
department store, a nightclub, a bachelor pad - turns
inro a slum overnight without warning: wattage
diminishes imperceptibly. leners drop out of signs, air
conditioning units slarL dripping, cracks appear as if
from otherwise unregis[ered earthquakes; sections rot,
are no longer viable, but remain joined to the flesh of
the main body via gangrenous passages. Judging the
built presumed a static condition; now each
architccrure
embodies
opposi te
conditions
simultaneously: old and new, permanent and
temporary, flourishing and at risk. ... Sections undergo
an Alzheimer-like deterioration as others are
upgraded. Because Junkspace is endless, it is never
closed .... Renovation and restoration were procedures
rhat took place in your absence; now you 're a wimess, a
reluctant participanr.... Seeing Junkspace in
conversion is like inspecting an unmade bed, someone
else's. Say an airport needs more space. In the past new
terminals were added, each more or less characteristic
of its own age. leaving the old ones as a readable
record , evid~nce of progress. Since passengers have
definilively demon strated their infinite malleability,
the idea ofrebuilding on the spot has gained currency.
Travelators are thrown in reverse. signs taped, potted
palms (or very la rge corpses) covered in body bags.
Screens oftaped sheetrocksegrcgare two populations:
one wel, one dry, one hard. one flabby, one cold, one
ovcrhcatcd. Half the population produces new space,
the more affluent ha lf consumes old space. To
accommodatc a nether world of manual labor, the
concourse suddenly turns into casbah: improvised
locker rooms, coffc breaks, smoking, even real
campfires .... The ceiling is a crumpled plate like the
Alps; grids of unstable tiles alternare wirh
monogrammed sheets of black plastic. improbably
punctured by grids of crystal chandeliers .... Metal ducts
are replaced by brealhing textiles. Gapingjoint'i reveal
vasr ceiling voids (former canyons of asbestos?}, beams,
ducting. rope, cable, insulation, fireproofing. string;
rangled arrangements suddenly exposed ro daylight.
Impure, tortured and complex. they exist only because
they were never consciously plotted. The floor is a
patchwork: different texrures - concrete, hairy, heavy,
shiny, plastic. metallic, muddy -alternare randomly, as
166

if dedicated to different species .... Thc ground is no

more. There are too many raw needs to be realized on
only one plane. The absolute horizontal has been
abandoned. Transparency has disappeared, replaced
by a dense crust of provisional occupation: kiosks.
carts, strollers, palms, fountains, bars. sofas, trolleys ....
Corridors no longer simply link A to B. but have
become "dcstinations." Their tenanr lite tcnds to be
short: the most srngnant windows. the most
perfunclory dresscs, the most implausible flowers. All
perspccrive is gone, as in a rainforest (itself
disappearing, they keep saying...). The formerly
straighr is coiled into ever more complex
configurations. Only a perverse modernist
choreography can explain the twists and turns, ascents
and descents. sudden reversals that comprise the
typical path from check-in (misleading name) to apron
of the average contemporary airport. Beca use we never
reconstruct or question the absurdity ofthese enforced
drives, we meekly submit to grotesque journeys past
perfume. asylum seeker, building site, underwear.
oysters, pornography, cell phone - incredible
adventures for the brain, the eye, the nose. the tongue.
the womb, the resticles .... There was once a polemic
about the right angle and the straight linc; now the
90th degree has become one among many. In fact
remnants of former geomerries crea te ever new havoc
offering forlorn nodes of resistance that creare
unstable eddies in newly opportunistic flows .... Who
would da re claim responsibility for this sequcnce?The
idea that a profession once dictated, or at leasr
presumed to predict, pcople's movements, now seems
laughable, or worse: unthinkable. Insrcad of design,
there is calculation: the more erratic the path.
eccentric thc loops, hidden the blueprint, the more
efficien t the exposure, inevitable the transaction. In
this war, graphic designers are the great turnco;us:
where once signage promised to deliver you to where
you wanted to be, il now obfuscates and entangles you
in a thicket of cuteness that forces you past unwanred
detours, turns you back vvhen you 're losL
Postmodcrn ism adds a crumple-zone ofviral poch tha:
fractures and multiplies the endless frontline o:
display, a peristaltic shrink-wrap crucial to aL
commercial exchange. Trajectories are launched as
ramp, turn horizontal without any warning, intersea:.
fold down , suddenly emerge on a vertiginous balcony
above a large void. Fascism minus dictator. From rbe
sudden dead eud where you were dropped by 2
monum ental. granite staircase, an escalator takes you
toan invisible destination, facing a provisional vista o~
plaster, inspired by forgettable sources. (There is :!C
datum level; yuu always inhabita sandvvich. "Space- :~

scooped out ofJunkspace as from a soggy block of ice

cream rhar has langu ishcd too long in the freezer:
cylindrical. cone shaped, more or less spherical,
wharever.... ) Toilet groups murare inro Disney Store
then morph ro become meditation center: successive
rransformations mock rhe word "plan." The plan is a
radar screen vvhere individual pulses survive for
unpredictable periods of Lime in a Bacchanalian freefor-all.... In this sra ndoff berween thc redundant and
the inevita ble. a plan would actually make matters
worse, drive you to instant despair. Only the diagram
gives a bearable version. There is zero loyalty- and zero
tolerance - toward configuralion, no "original"
condition; architecture has turned into a tim~e-lapse
sequence to revea! a "permanent evolution" .... The only
certainty is conversion - continuous - followed, in rare
cases, by "restoration," t he process that claims ever
new sections of history as extensions of Junkspace.
History corrupts, absolute history corrupts absol'utely.
Color and matter are eliminated from these bloodless
grafts: the bland has become the only meeting ground
for the old and the new.... Can the bland be amplified?
The featureless be exaggerated? Through height?
Depth? Length? Variation? Repetition? Sometimes not
overload but its opposite. an absolute absence ofdetail,
generares Junkspace. Avoided condition of frighrening
sparseness, shocking proof that so much can be
organized by so lillle. Laughable emptiness infuses thc
respectful distance or rentative embrace that
starchitects maintain in Lhe presence of the past,
authentic or not. Invariably, the primordial decision is
to leave the original intact; the formerly residual is
declarecl the new essence, focus ofthe intervention. As
a first step, thc substance to be preserved is wrapped in
a thick pack of commerce ancl catering - like a
reluctanr skier pushcd downhill by responsible
minders. To show respect, symrnetries are rnaintained
ancl helplessly exaggera ted ; ancient building
techniques are resurrected and honed to irrelevant
shine. quarries reopened to excava te the "sarne" stone,
indiscreet donor names chiseled prominently in the
meekest of typefaces; the courtyard covered by a
masterfu l, strncn1ra 1 "filigree
emphatically
uncompetitive -so that conlinuity may be established
V\rith the "rest" of Junkspace (abandoned galleries.
display slums, jurassic conc.:epts ...). Conditioning is
applied; filterecl daylight reveals vast, antiseptic
expanses of monumental rcticence and makes then1
come alive. vibrant as a cornputer rendering.... The
curse of public space: latent fascism safely smothered
in signagc, stools, sympathy.... junkspace is postexistential; iL makes you uncertain where you are.
obscures where you go, undoes where you were. Who

do you thinkyou are? Who do you want to be? (Note to

architects: you thoughl that you could ignore
Junkspace, visit it surreptitiously, treat it with
condescending contempt or enjoy it vicariously...
because you could nor understand it. you've thrown
away the keys .... But now your own architecrure is
infected, has become equally smooth, ali-inclusive.
continuous, warped,
busy,
atrium-ridden ....,
junkSignaturen is the new architecture: rhe former
megalomania of a protession contracted te
manageable size. junkspace rninus its savingvulgarity
Anything stretchecl - limousines, body parts. planes
turns into Junkspace. its original concept abused
Restore. rearrange. reassemble, revamp, renovare
revise, recover, redesign, return - the Parthenor.
marblcs - redo. respect. rent: verbs that starl with re
producejunkspace .... Junkspacewill be our tomb. Hal:
of mankind pollutes to produce. the other pollutes te
consume. The combined pollution of all Third Worlc
cars, mororbikes, trucks, buses, sweatshops pales intc
insignificanc.:e compared to the heat generated b)
Junkspace. Junkspace is political: it depends on th<
central removal of the critical faculty in the name o
comfort and pleasure. Politics has become manifestc
by Photoshop, seamless blueprints of the muruall~
exclusive, arbitrated by opaque NGOs. Comfort is th(
new Justice. Entire miniature states now adop
Junkspace as political program, establish regimes o
engineered disorientation, instigare a politics o
systematic disarray. Not exactly "anything goes"; il
fact, the secret of Junkspace is that it is hotl
promisc uous and rcpressive: as the formles
prolifera tes, the formal withers, and with ir all rules
regulations, recourse .... Babel has bccn misunderstood
Languagc is not the problem, just the new frontier o
junkspace. Mankincl, turn by eternal dilcmmas, th1
impasse of seem ingly endless debates, has launched ;
new language that straddles unbridgeable divides lik
a fragile designer's footbridge ... coined a proactiv.
wave of ncw oxymorons to suspend forme
incompatibilicy: life/style, reality{TV, world/music
museum/store.
food/court ,
health/carc
waiting/lounge. Naming has replaced class srruggle
sonorous amalgamations of status, high-conccpt an1
history. Through acronym , unusua1 importatior.
su ppressing letters, or fabrication of non-existen
plurals, they aim to shed meaning in rcturn for
spacious new roominess .... Junkspace knows all you
emotions, all your dcsircs. It is the interior of Bi
Brother's belly. lt preempts people's scnsations. l
comes wilh a soundtrack, smell, captions; iL blarancl
proclaims how it wants to be read: rich, srunning, coo
huge, abstract, "minimal." historical. It sponsors
1

collective ofbrooding consumers in surly anticipation

of their next spend, a mass ofrefractory periods caught
in a Thousand Year Reign ofRazzmatazz, a paroxysm of
prosperiry. The subject is stripped of privacy in return
for access to a credir nirvana. You are complicit in the
tracing of the fingerprints each of your transactions
leaves; [hey know everything about you, except who
you are. Emissaries of Junkspace pursue you in the
formerly imperVious privacy of the bedroom: the
minibar, prvate fax machines, pay TV ofkring
compromised pornography, fresh plastic veils
w rapping toilet seats, courtesy condoms: minia Lure
profit centers coexist with your bedside bible ....
j unkspace pretends to unite, but it actually splinters. It
creares conununities not of shared interest or free
association, butofidentical statis.tics and unavoidable
demographk-s, an opportunistic weave of vested
inrerests. Each man, woman and child is individually
targeled, tracked, split off from the rest.... Fragmenls
come together at "security" only, where a grid ofvideo
screens clisappointingly reassembles individual frames
into a banalized, u tilitarian cubism that reveals
Junkspace's overall coherence to the dispassionate
glare ofbarely trained guards: videoethnography in its
brute form. Just as junkspace is unstable, its actual
ownership is forever being passed on in parallel
disloyalty.Junkspace happens spontaneously tluough
natural corporate exuberance - the unfettered play of
the market - or is generated through the combined
actions oftemporary 'czars' wh longrecords ofthreedimensional philanthropy, bureaucrats (often former
leftists) that optimistically sell off vast tracks of
waterfront. former hippodromes, military bases and
abandoned airfields to developers orreal estate rnoguls
that can accommodate any deficit in futuristic
balances, or through Default Preservationrn (the
maintenance of historical complexes that nobody
wants but the Zeitgeist has declared sacrosanct). As its
scale mushrooms - rivals ancl even exceeds that of the
Publ ic - its economy becom es more inscrutable. Its
financing is a deliberate haze, clouding opaque deals,
dubious tax breaks, unusual incentives, exemptions.
Lenuous legalities, Lransferred air rights. joined
properties, special zoning districts, public-private
complicities. Fundecl by bonds, lottery, subsidy, charity,
grant: an erratic flow ofyen, euros and dollars (Y$)
creates financia! envelopes that are as fragile as their
contents. Because of a structliral shortfall, a
fundamen tal dcficit. a contingent bankruptcy, each
square inch becomes a grasping, needy surface
dependent on coven or overt suppon, discount,
compensation and fundraising. For culture, "engraved
donor bricks": for everything else: cash, rentals , leases,
:~

franchises, the underpinning of brands. Junkspace

expands with the economy bul iLs fooLprint cannot
contract... when it is no longer needed , it thins.
Because of its tenuous viability, Junkspace has to
swallow more and more program to survivc; soon, we
will be able to do anything anywhere. We will have
conquered place. At the end of Junkspace, the
Universal? Through Junkspace old aura is transfused
with new luster to spa\vn suelden comrnercial viability:
Barcelona amalgamatcd with the Olyrnpics, Bilbao
with Guggenheim , 42nd with Disney. God is dead, the
author is clead, historyis dead , onlythe architect is lefr
standing... an insulting evolutionary joke .... A shortage
of masters has not stopped a proliferation of
masterpieces. "Masterpiece" has become. a definitive
sanction, a semantic space that saves the object from
criticism, leaves its qualities unproven, its
performance untestecl, its motives unquesrioned.
Masterpiece is no longer an inexplicable fluke. a roll of
th dice, but a consistent typology: its mission to
intimidare, most of its exLerior surfaces bent, huge
percentages of its square footage dysfunctional. its
centrifuga! components barely hekl together by the
pull of the atrium, dreading the imminent arrval of
forensic accounting .... The more indeterminate the
city, the more specific its Junkspace; all Junkspace's
prototypes are urban - the Roman Forum, the
Metropolis; it is only their reverse synergy that makes
them suburban, simultaneously swollen and shr unk.
Junlcspace reduces what is urban to urbanity.... lnstead
of public life, Public Spacen 1: what remains of the city
once the unpredictabk has been removed .... Space for
"honoring," "sharing," "caring," "grieving" and
"healing" ... civili ty imposed by an overdose of se rif.... In
the third Millennium, junkspace will assume
responsibility for pleasure and religion, exposure aud
ntimacy, public life and privacy. Tnevitahly, the death
of God (and the author) has spawned orphaned space:
Junkspace
is
authorless,
yeL
surprisingly
authoritarian .... At the moment of its greatesr
emancipation, humankind is subjected to the mosr
dictatorial scripts: from the pushy ciration of the
waiter, to the answering gulags on Lhe olher end of the
telephone, the safery instructions on the airplane.
more and more insiste:it perfumes, mankind is
browbeaten to submit to the most harshly engineered
plotline .... The chosen theater of megalomana - the
dictatorial - is no longer politics, but entertainmenL
Through Junkspace, entertainment organizes
hermetic regimes of ultimare exclusion and
concentration:
concentration
gambling.
concentration golf. concentration convention.
concentralion rnovie, concentration
culture.

concentration holiday. Entertainment is like watching

a once hot planet cool off; its majar inventions are
ancienr: rhe moving image, the roller coaster, sound.
cartoons. clowns, unicycles. dinosaurs, news, war.
Except celcbritics - of wh1ch there is a dramatic
shortage - we have added noLhing, jusl reconfigured.
Corporainmcnt is a galary in contraction, forced ro go
rhrough the motions by ru thless Copernican laws. The
secret of corporate aesthetics was rhe power of
elimination, thc cckbration of the efficient, the
eradication of excess: abstraction as camouflage, the
search for a Corporate Sublime. On popular dcmand,
organized beauty has become warm. humanist,
inclusivist, arbitrary, poelic and unrhreatening: water
is pressurizcd through vcry small hoJes, then forced
into rigorous hoops: straight palms are bent into
grotesque poses, air is burdenecl wilh added oxygen - as
if only forcing mallcable substances into the most
drastic contortions main tains control, sa tisfies thc
drive to get rid of surprise. Not canned laughter, but
canned euphoria .... Color has disappcarcd to <lampen
the resulting cacophony. is used only as cue: relax,
enjoy, be well; we're united in sedation .... Why can't we
tolera te
strongcr
scnsations?
Dissonance?
Awk\vardness? Genius? Anarchy?.... junkspace heals. or
ar least that is Lhe assumption of many hospitals. We
thoughr thc hospital was uniquc-a universe identified
by its smell - but now that we are used to universal
conditioning wc rccogni7.c it was merely a prototype;
all junkspace is defined by its odor. Often heroic in
size, planned wilh the lasL adrenaline of modernism's
grand inspiration, we have made them (too) human;
life or death decisions are taken in spaces that are
relentlessly friendly, littered with fading bouquets,
empty coffee cups and yesterday's papers. You used to
face death in appropriate cells, now your nearest are
huddled together in atriums. A bold datum line is
established on every vertical surface, dividing the
infirmary in two: above an endless humanist scroll of
"color," loved ones. children's sunsets, signage and
art... below a utilitarian zone for defacemem and
disinfeCLanl, amicipated collision, scratch, spill and
smudge .... junkspace is space as vacation; there once
was a relationship berween leisure and work, a biblical
dictare that divided our weeks, organized public life.

Now we work harder, marooned in a never-ending

casual Friday.... Thc officc is the next frontier of
Junkspace. Since you can work at home. the office
aspires to the domeslic; because you slill neecl alife, ir
simulares the ciry. Junkspace features the office as the
urban home, a meeting-boudoir: desks become
sculpturcs, thc workfloor is lit by inrin1ate downlights.
Monumental partitions, kiosks, mini-Starbucks on

interior plazas: a Post-it univcrse: 'team memory,'

"information persistence"; futile hedges against rhe
universal forgetting of Lhe unmemorable. rhe
oxymoron as mission statcment. Witness corporaLe
agit-prop: rhe CEos suite becomes "leadcrsh ip
collective," wircd to all thc world 's other junkspace,
real or imagined. J:::space bernmes e-space. The 21 st
century \Vill bring "intelligen t" Junkspace: on a big
digital "dashboard": sales. CNNNYSENASDAQC-SPA.K,
anything thar goes up or clown. from good to bad.
presented in real time like the automotive theor)'
course that complements driving lessons ...
Globalizalion Lurns language inro .Junkspace. We are
stuck in a spccch-doldrums. The ubiquity ofEnglish i5
Pyrrhic: no'"' that we all speak it, nobody rememb er~
its use. The collective bastardization of English is om
most impressivc ach ievement; we have broken its bad<
with ignorance, accent. slang, jargon, tourism
outsourcing and multitasking... we can make iL sa)
anythingwewanL, like aspeech dummy.... Through thE
retrofitting of language, there are too fev,r plausiblE
\.Vords lefL; our most creative hypotbescs will never be
formulatcd, discoveries will rernain unmade, concepl~
unlaunched.
philosophies
muffled,
nuancc~
miscarried.... We inhabit sumptuous Potemkir
suburbs of wcasel rerminologies. Aberrant linguislic
ecologies sustain virtual subjects in their claim te
legitimacy, help them survivc .... I.anguage is no longe1
used to explore. define, express, orto confront but te
fudge, blur, obfuscate, apologize and comfort... ii
stakcs claims, assigns victimhood, preempts debate
admits guilt. fosters consensus. Enlire organization~
and/or professions impose a descent in to the linguisti<
equivalenr of h ell: condemned to a word-limbo
inmates wrestle wilh words in ever-descend ing spiral~
of pleading, lying, bargaining. flattening ... a Satani<
orchestration of Lhe meaningless .... lntended for thE
interior. Junkspacc can casily engulfa whole city. FirsL
it escapes from its containers - semantic orchids tha
needcd )1othouse protection emergingwith surprisin:
robustness - then the outdoors ilself is converted: th
strccr is paved more luxuriously, shelters proliferat
carrying increasingly dictatorial mcssages. traffic i
calmed, crime eliminated. Thenjunkspace spreads lik
a forest fire in LA.... The global progress ofJunkspaei
reprcscnts a final ManifestDestiny: the World as publi
space .... Ali the resurrected emblems and rekinclle<
embers of the formerly public need new pasrures. J
n ew vegetal is corrallcd for its thematic efficienc.y. Th1
outing
of junkspace
has
triggered
th1
professionalization of denaturing. a benign ecc
fascism that positions arare surviving Siberian tiger i1
a forest of slot machines. ncar Armani, amidsL ,
16'

-=:.:::-=.

2.:bcr:eal Ba roque.... Ou tside, between the

~-:in~. :onnrains

projecr en tire Stalinist buildings of

ejaculaced in a split-second, hovering
moraenrarily. Lhen withdrawn with an amnesiac
comperency-. ... Air, water, wood: all are enhanced to
produce Hyperecology1M a parallel Walden, a new
rainforest. Landscape has become j unkspace, foliage as
spoilage: trees are tortured, lawns cover human
manipulations like thick pelts or cven toupees,
sprinklers water accorcling to mathemati cal
timerables.... Seemingly at the opposite end of
junkspace, the golf course is in fact its conceptual
double; empty, serene, free of commercial debris. The
relative evacualion ofthe golfcoursc is achieved bythe
further charging of Junkspace. The methods of their
design and realization are similar: erasure, tabula rasa,
reconfiguration.Junkspace rurns in to biojunk; ecology
into ecospace. Ecology and economy have bonded in
Junkspace as ecolomy. The economy has become
Faustian; hyperdevelopment depends on artificial
underdevelopment; a huge global bureaucracy is in
the making to settle, in a colossal yin/yang, the balance
bcrwccnjunkspace and golf. betwecn the scraped and
the scaped. trading che right to despoil for the
obligation to create steroid rainforests in Costa Rica.
Oxygcn banks, Fort Knoxes ofchlorophyll, eco-reserves
as a blank check for frther pollution. Junkspacc is
rewriting che apocalypse; we may die of oxygen
poisoning.... In the past, the complexities ofjunkspace
were compensated by the stark rawness of its adj u nct
infrastructures: parking garages, filling stations,
distribution cen ters that routinely displayed a
monumental purity that was the original aim of
modernism. Now, massive injections oflyricism have
enabled infrastructure - the one domain previously
immune to design, laste or the markerplace - to join
th e world ofjunkspace. and for Junkspace to extend its
manifesta tions under the sky. Railway stations unfold
like iron butterflies, airports glisten like cyclopic
dewdrops, bridges span often negligible banks likc
groresquely enlarged versions of the harp. To each
rivuler ils own Calatrava. (Sometimes when there is a
strong wind, this new generation of insrruments
shakes as if being played hy a giant, or maybe a God,
and manki nd shudders ....)Junkspace can be airborne,
bring malaria to Sussex; 300 anopheline mosquitoes
arrive each day ar GDG and G1W wich the theoretical
ability ro infect 8 to 20 locals in a 3 mile radius, a
hazard exacerbated by the average passenger's
reluctance, in a misplaced gasp of quasi-autonomy, to
be disinfected once he or she has buckled up for thc
rctu rn journey from the dead cnd of the tourist
170
...:tp.ii~.

destination. Airports, provisiona l accommodarion for

those going elscwhere, inhabiled by assemblies united
only by the imminence of thcir dissolution, have
turned into consumption gulags, democratically
distributed across the globe to givc every citizen an
equal chance of admission .... MXP looks as if all thc
leftovers of East Germany's reconstruction - whatever
vvas needed to undo the deprivations ofCommunism have been hurricdlybulldozed together according to a
vaguely rectangular blueprint to form a botched
sequence of d eformed, inadequate spaces, apparently
willed into being by the current rulers of Europe,
cxtorting limitless euros from rhc conununity's
regional funds, now causing endless delays for irs
duped taxpayers too busy on cell phones to notice.
DFW is composed of three elements only, repeated ad
infinitum. nothing else: one kind ofbeam, one kind of
brick, one kind oftile, ali coated in the same color-is it
teal? Rust?Tobacco? Its symmetries scaled beyond any
recognition, rhe endless curve ofits termina Is forces its
users to enact reJativity thcory in their quest for the
gate. Its drop-off is the seemingly harmless bcginning
of a journey to the heart of unmitigated nothi ngness,
beyond animation by Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen .... Valley
cultures were thought to be the most resistant to
junkspace: at GVZ you can still see a universe ofrules,
order, hierarchy, neatness, coordination, poised
moments before irs implosion. but ar ZHR huge
"timepieces" hover in front ofinterior waterfalls asan
essay in Regionaljunk. Dury-free is Junkspace,
]unkspace is duty-free space. Where culture was
thinnest, will it be the first to run out? Is emptiness
local? Do wide open spaces demand widc open
Junkspace? Sunbelt: huge populations where there
was nothing; PHX: warpaint on every terminal, dead
lndian outlines on every surface carpet, wallpaper,
napkins - like frogs flattened by car tires. Public Art
distributed across LAX: the fish that have disappeared
from our rivers rcturn as public art in the concourse;
only whal is dead can be resurrecred. Memory itself
may have turned in to Junkspace; only those murder ed
will be remembered .... Deprivation can be ca used by
overdose or shortage; both conditions happen in
Junkspace (often at the same time). Minimum is the
ultimare ornament, a self-righteous crime, the
contemporary Baroque. It <loes not signify beaut:y, but
guilt. Its demonstrative earnestness drives whole
civilizations in to rhe welcoming arms of camp and
kitsch. Ostensibly a relief from constant sensorial
onslaught, mnimum is maximum in drag. a stealth
laundering of luxury: the stricter the lines, the more
irresistible the seductions. Its role is not to

approximate the sublime, but to minin1ize the shame

of consumption, drain embarrassment, to lower the
higher. Minimum now exists in a state ofparasitic codependency with overdose: to have and not to have,
craving and owning, finally collapsed in a single
signifier.... Museums are sanctimonious Junkspace; no
sturdier aura than holiness. To accommodate the
converts they have attracted by default, museums
massively turn "bad" space into "good" space; the more
untreated the oak. the larger the profit center.
Monasteries inflated to the scale ofclepartment stores:
expansion is the third millennium's entropy, dilute or
die. Dedicated to respectmostly the dead, no cemetery
would dare to reshuff1e corpses as casuallyin the name
of current expediency; curators plot hangings and
unexpected encounters in a donor-plate labyrinth with
the finesse of the retailer: lingerie becomes "Nude,
Action, Body," cosmetics "History, Memory, Society."
All paintings based on black grids are 11erded together
in a single white room. Large spiders in the
humongous conversion offer delirium for the
masses .... Narrative reflexes that have enabled us from
the beginning of time to connect dots, fill in blanks,
are now turned against us: we cannotstop noticing: no
sequence too absurd, trivial, meaningless, insulting ...
through our ancient evolutionary equipment, our
irrepressible attention span, we helplessly register,
provide insight, squeeze meaning, read intention; we
cannot stop making sense out of the utterly senseless ....
On its triumphal march as content provider. art
cxtends far beyond the museum's ever-increasing
boundaries. Outside, in the real world, the "art
planner"
spreads
Junkspace's
fundamental.
incohei,-ence by assigning defunct mythologies to
residual :surfaces and plotting three-dimensional
works in leftover emptiness. Scouting for authenticity,
their touch seals the fa te of what was real, taps it for
incorporalion in Junkspace. Art galleries move en
masse to where it is "edgy," then convert raw space into
white cubes .... The only legitimate discourse is loss; art
replenishcs Junkspacc in di rcct proportion to its own
morbidity. We used to renew what was depleted, now
we try to rsurrect what is gone.... Outside, the
architect's fo0tbridge is rocked to the breaking point
by a stampede of enthusiastic pedestrians; -the
designers' initial audacity now await5 the enginee.r's
application of dampers. Junkspace is a look-no-hands
world .... The constant threat ofvirtuality in.Junkspace
is no longer exorcized by pettochemical products,
piastic, viny.l or rubbr; the .synthetic cheapens.
junkspace has to exaggerate its claims to the authentic.
Junkspace is like a womb that organizes the transition

of endless quantilies of the Real - srone, trees. go1

daylight. pcoplc-into theunreal. Entire mountaim
dismembered to provide ever-greater quantitie
authenticity, suspended on precarious bracl
polished to a blinding state of flash thal renders
intended earnestness instantly clusive. Stone
comes in lightyellow, flesh, a violent beige, a soap
green. the colors of CommunisL plastics in the lS
Forests are tellcd, their wood is all pale: maybe
origins of junkspace go back to the Kindergart
("Origins" is a mint shampoo that stings the
region). Color in the real world looks increasi
unreal. drained. Color in virtual space is lumir
therefore irresistible. A surfejt of reality TV has n
us in to amateur guards monitoring a junkunive1
From the lively breasts of the classical violinist, t<
designer stubble of the Big Brother outcast,
contextual pedophilia ofthe former revolutionar~
routine addictions of the stars, the runny make1
the evangelist, the robotic body language o1
conductor. the dubious benefits of the fundra
marathon, the futile explanations ofthe politicia1
swooping movement of the TV cam-e ra suspended
its boom - an eagle without beak or claws, ju
optical stomach - swallows images and confes
indiscriminately, like a trash bag. to propcl thE
cyber-vomit in space. TV studio sets - gai
monumental- are both Uie culmination and the E
perspectival space as we've known it: an
geometric remnants -invading s~arry infini ties
space editedfor smooth transm.issiou in virtual s
crucial hinge in an infernal feedback loop ..
vastness ofjunkspace extended to the edges oftl
Bang. Beca use we spend our life indoors - like an
in a ~oo - we are obsessea with th~ wealher: 40%
TV consists of presenters of Jesser attractiv
gesturing helplessly in front ofwindswept forma
through which you recognize, sometimes, you1
destination/current position. Conceptually,
monitor, each TV screen is a substitute for a vv
real lifc is inside, cybcrspacc has become the
outdoors.... Mankind is always going on .
arch itecture. What ifspace started looking atman
Will Junkspace invade the body? Through the vi
the cell phone? Has it alrcady? Botox injec
Collagen? Silicone implants? Liposuction?
enlargements? Does gene therapy annou nce a
reengineeril1g acc0rding to Junkspace? Is each a
mini-constructionsite? Mankind the sum of3 to 5 l
individual upgrades? Is ita repertoire ofreconfigu
that facilitates the intromission of.a new species iJ
self-made Junksphere? The cosmetic is the ne\\"cos

approximate the sublime. but to minimize the shame

of consumption, drain embarrassment, to lower the
higher. Minimum now exists in a state of parasitic codependency with overdose: to have and not to have,
craving and awning, finally collapsed in a single
signifier.... Museums are sanctimonious Junkspace; no
sturdier aura than holincss. To accommodate the
converts they have attracted by default, museums
massively turn "bad" space in to "good" space; the more
untreated the oak, the larger the profit center.
Monasteries inflatecl to the scale ofdepartment srores:
expansion is the third millennium's entropy. dilute or
die. Dedicated to respect mostly the clead, no cemetery
would dare to reshuffle corpses as casually in the name
of current cxpcdicncy; curators plot hangings and
unexpected encounters in a donor-plate labyrinth with
the finesse of the retailer: lingerie becomes "Nude,
Action, Body," cosmetics "History, Memory, Society."
Ali paintings bascd on black grids are herded together
in a single white room. Large spiders in the
humongous conversion offer delirium for the
masses .... Narrative reflexes that have enabled us from
the beginning of time to connect dots, fill in blanks,
are now turned against us: we cannot stop noticing: no
sequence too absurd, trivial, meaningless, insulting...
through our ancient evolutionary equipment, our
irrepressible attention span, we helplessly register,
provide insighL, squeeze meaning, read intention; we
cannot stop making sense out of the utterly senseless ....
On its triumphal march as content provider, art
exrencls far beyond the museum's ever-increasing
boundaries. Outside, in the real world, the "art
spreads
Junkspace's
fundamental
planner"
incoherence by assigning dcfunct mythologies to
residual surfaces and plotting three-dimensional
works in leftover cmptiness. Scouring for authenticity.
their touch seals the fa te of what was real , taps it for
incorporation in Junkspace. Art galleries move en
masse ro where it is "edgy," then convert raw space in to
white cu bes .... The only legitima te discourse is loss; art
replenishes junkspacc in direct proportion to its own
morbidity. We used to renew what was depleled, now
we try to resurrect what is gone.... Outside, the
architect's footbridge is rocked to the breaking point
by a srampede of enthusiastic pcdcstrians; the
designers' inicial audacity now awaits the engineer's
application of dampers. Junkspace is a look-no-hands
world .... The constant threat ofvirtuality injunkspace
is no longer exorcized by petrochemical products,
plastic, vinyl or rubber; the synthetic cheapens.
Junkspace has to exaggerate its claims to the authentic.
Junkspace is like a womb thal organizes the transition

of endless quantities of the Real - stone. trees. goods.

daylight, people-into the unreal. En tire mountains are
dismembered to provide ever-greater quantitics of
authcnricity, suspended on precarious brackets,
polished to a blinding stale uf Oash LhaL re11ders rhe
intendcd earnestness instantly elusive. Stone only
comes in lightyellow, flesh, a violem beige, a soap-like
green, Lhe colors of Communist plastics in rhe 1950s.
foresrs are felled , their wood is all pale: maybe the
origins of Junkspace go back to the Kindergarten ...
("Origins" is a mine shampoo that stings the anal
region). Color in the real worlcl looks increasingly
unreal, drained. Color in virtual space is luminous,
therefore irresistible. A surfeit of reality TV has made
us in to amateur guards monitoring a Junkuniverse ....
From the lively breasts of the classical violinist, to the
designcr srubble of the Big Brother outcast, Lhe
contextual pedophilia of the former revolutionary. the
routine addictions of the stars, the runny makeup of
the evangclist, the robotic body language of che
conductor, the dubious benefits of the fundraising
marathon, the futile explanations ofthe politician: the
S\-vooping movement ofthe TV camera suspended from
its boom - an eagle vvithout beak or claws, just an
optical stomach - swallows irnages and confessions
indiscriminately, like a trash bag, to propel them as
cyber-vomit in space. TV studio sets - garishly
monumental- are both the culmination and the end of
perspectiva! space as we've known ir: angular
geometric remnants invading starry infinities; real
space edited for smooth transmission in virtual space,
crucial hinge in an infernal feedback loop... the
vastness ofjunkspace extended to the edges of the Big
Bang. Because we spend our life indoors -like animals
in a zoo - we are obsessed with che weather: 40% of all
TV consists of presenters of lesser attractiveness
gesturing helplessly in front ofvvindswept formations,
through wh ich you recognize, sometimes. your own
destination/current position. Conceplually, each
monitor, each TV screen is a substitute for a window;
real life is inside, cyberspace has become the great
outdoors.... Mankind is always going on about
architecrure. What if space started looking ar mankind?
Will Junkspace invade rhe body? Through the vi bes o
che cell phone? Has it already? Botox injections?
Collagen? Silicone implants? Liposuction? Penis
enlargements? Docs gene therapy announce a toLal
reengineering according to junkspace? Is each of usa
mini-construcon site? Mankind the sum of3 to 5 billion
individual u pgrades? Is ita repertoire ofreconfiguration
that facilita tes the intromission ofa new species imo il:.s
self-madc Junksphere? The cosmetic is the new cosmic....
171