What is it not?

"Junkspace is often described as a space of flows, but that is a misnomer; flows depend on disciplined movement, bodies that cohere. Junkspace is a web without a spider; although it is an architecture of the masses, each trajectory is strictly unique. Its anarchy is one of the last tangible ways in which we experience freedom. It is a space of collision, a container of atoms, busy, not dense... There is a special way of moving through junkspace, at the same time aimless and purposeful. It is an acquired culture."

I'll admit, I didn't particularly understand everything that Koolhaas was describing in Junkspace. What does he consider NOT to be junkspace? He even touches on the office and home heading towards becoming junkspace. But this passage did strike a chord with me, and I felt as if I were beginning to understand a bit more. "A web without a spider," is essentially useless; it exists, but it no longer serves a purpose except to be detrimental to those who get caught in it (or a nuisance to those who walk through it). It's purpose has been exhausted, and now it sits, as brilliant and beautiful as it was when it was in use, awaiting destruction. Are these characteristics of junkspace? If not, then what are they? Just junk?

"There is a special way of moving through junkspace, at the same time aimless and purposeful." How can something be both aimless and purposeful? Then I thought, how do people move through the more classic examples of junkspace? Take the mall, for some reason, everyone walking the same direction stays on one side of those little kiosks, and anyone who walks toward you on that same side just seems to be in the way. It seems aimless at first, but walking against the flow of traffic just feels uncomfortable. But, I don't feel that way at home or at school. When standing in line, how do we decide how to wrap the line in certain directions? Is there a subconscious purpose behind our altered way of moving that is warped by being in areas of "junkspace?"