SQUARE OF BABEL SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE

Ada Kwiatkowska

Abstrakt  

The central square of European cities can be viewed as a ”Square of Babel” because of its richness of languages, behavior and cultural codes. The Square of Babel is somewhere - and everywhere - in Europe. It is a scene of socio-cultural performances and battles. In this paper the cultural transformation of the square is analyzed in aspects of traditional, present and future patterns, as well as the meaning and iconography of four symbolic corners of the square: the religious, the political, the commercial and the recreational. There are two scenarios of a possible future transformation of the European square. First, cultural diversification of spatial codes may lead to spatial and semantic disorder. Second, cultural unification of spatial codes may lead to an international ”McWorld”. In the Old Testament the story of Tower of Babel, the second scenario seems to be ‘unpleasant for God’. If so, does the Square of Babel announce the catastrophe?

Artykuł:

Kwiatkowska, Ada (1999). „Square of Babel Somewhere in Europe”, in: L.Nyström (ed.) City and Culture: Cultural Processes and Urban Sustainability, Stockholm, Karlskrona: Lenanders Tryckeri, s..270-286. (fot./collage Ada Kwiatkowska)

Disordered World

McWorld

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