Architecture and Modernity : A Critique

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The prints and drawings in which Constant gives an impression of the spatial
character of New Babylon are also numerous. Features suggesting dynamism and
mobility are frequently emphasized here—stairs, ladders, elevators, adjustable walls
(figure 79). Many of the views of the interior give an impression of a somewhat suffocating
labyrinthine space, a boundless area in which one can lose one’s way ad infinitum
(figure 80). There are staircases and passages that lead nowhere, and heavily
emphasized shadows with Piranesi-like spaces outlined against them. Now and then
one sees blobs that look roughly like human silhouettes. In drawings where a larger
number of these silhouettes appear, it is striking that there is no interaction between
them: in each case what we see are figures who traverse the labyrinth alone.
A typical feature of the drawings is the tension they convey. This tension is
often created by graphic means—fragile shapes are opposed to compact ones, dark
is opposed to light, dynamic lines are contrasted with static volumes. Sometimes
tension is produced by the rhythm of the walls that give structure to the space depicted,
or it issues from the movement of the human figures or from the distortions
of perspective. This tension can be seen as indicative of the continual oscillation between
the liberating and disturbing impressions that the viewer is subjected to. On
the one hand, New Babylon fulfills one’s expectations of an absolutely free space,
where the individual can construct his own environment as he pleases, exploiting to
the full its creative possibilities. Movable walls, ladders, elevators, and stairways suggest
a possibility of endless journeys and constant new encounters. The individual
can project himself onto his environment within a general structure that harnesses
the poetic potential of technology to the full. On the other hand, these drawings also
betray a feeling of unease. The indifference with which the earth’s surface has been
stripped, the huge scale of the structures supporting the sectors, the endlessness of
the interior spaces that never seem to
permit any contact with the outside
world: these features also seem to ap-
Constant, Fiesta Gitana, 1958.
pear, even if Constant did not intend
(Collection Centraal Museum,
them to. In this sense, the drawings—
Utrecht.)
more than the maquettes—form a
sort of modification of Constant’s discourse
on a utopian world that is free
of oppression and inequality.
The same is true of the paintings
that Constant produced during
his New Babylon period. Initially, in his
most radical phase, Constant avoided
painting for reasons of principle, viewing
it as a bourgeois and reactionary
art. Nevertheless, he never entirely
abandoned his brushes, even if he
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