| Rudolph Guliani's law and order ideology forces people to disappear under the surface of the city. In its extreme consequence the "zero-tolerance" policy allows no visibility of "the other" of society. (...) If we read Manhattan as Bachelard analyses the house, we identify N.Y.´s underground spaces as a huge Bachelardian cellar which is a sphere of the collective subconscious of the city. The tunnel people are part of the supressed elements of that collective subconscious.(...) In N.Y.C. the uniformity of the grid is confronted with the anarchy of architectural fragments, which are depending on financial speculation. The grid as a real abstraction is in conflict with the organism of the city that N.Y. represents. Manhattan is a social construct with its mechanisms of displacement, repression, gentrification and segregation.(...)The grid allows the spatial proximity of oppositions (Wall Street-Meat Market) while the mental segregation is kept. (...)The existence of people living under the surface of the city in tunnels and chambers means a new occupation and definition of urban structure. A new "social layer" is introduced to Manhattan.(...) Andre krammer 2.00 |