On Junckspace

         “Junkspace is a domain of feigned, simulated order, a kingdom of morphing. Its specific configuration is as

         fortuitous as the geometry of a snowflake…Junkspace is beyond measure, beyond code…Because it 

         cannot be grasped, Junkspace cannot be remembered.”

While reading Koolhaas’ essay on “Junkspace” which presented an interesting critique of contemporary urbanism and city making, I couldn’t help but think of the faceless, bland, and random business, food, and shopping centers that have been popping up left and right in my own city, taking the place of once open fields, every time I visit home. As Koolhaas described, in these spaces you lose all concept of time, direction, space, and even the weather outside as users are encouraged to stay for long periods of time (and spend as much as they can). I feel like the reason these spaces are often unsuccessful or unappealing is because they devalue or completely neglect the surrounding context, both natural and architectural; they simply emerge in cityscapes worldwide, characterless and standardized, with no clear function and are larger than they need to be as bigness has seem to become one of the defining traits of modern architecture.

“Junkscpace thrives on design, but design dies in Junkspace.”

It’s hard to think that some of these spaces are actually designed by teams of architects in which no attention is paid to how the structure blends in with its surroundings. Huge and full of absence, Junkspace follows no rules and seems to have no inherent order or connection between its parts. They become separate entities leading to “a rich orchestration of chaos” as Koolhaas puts it. So as Junkspace continues to be generated and production and consumption empowered, cities across the world will continue to grow till they reach the climax of modernism, which is quite frankly a frightening scenario to think about.