Artificial Metropolis

In Rem Koolhaas' Culture of Congestion, he paints a picture of late 19th century Manhattan, a city that is considered the "archetype" or "ideal of density" of growing American Metropolitan cities. His discussion on Coney Island raised very interesting questions that may be unanswerable. He initially claims that the shape of the peninsula was transformed by a combination of "natural forces and human intervention" which eventually created a "design" that grew into a miniature copy of Manhattan. Part of this seems valid, but it seems like the forces of human intervention always overtake nature on an extreme level - especially when we are talking about building dense, vertical structures to accommodate an influx of people. This is a very purposeful gesture, which requires the destruction of natural elements to become a reality, however unique or innovative it may be. 

Coney Island became a convenient escape from the density of Manhattan - understandable for the 1880's and 90's - yet it slowly became another Manhattan. Once it became accessible by bridge, it naturally became like its neighboring metropolis, but did it have to? The literal metaphor of the Inexhaustible Cow really struck me, because it clearly described this shift in architecture, one that emphasizes buildings as mechanisms or products resulting from city growth, rather than something naturally grown over time. Somehow this makes the skyscrapers "superior" to their traditional counterparts, stretched beyond the normal capacities of functions in a single space. 

The other odd attractions Koolhaas mentions (like the electric bath and barrels of love) seem to represent very surface-level obsessions with artificiality, and anything man-made, no matter how ridiculous the function was. Even after a more practical invention of the elevator, this artificiality of building is still pushed to its limits, creating repetitive structural frames that passively encase the nonsensical conglomeration of programs within. This seems like a pointless approach to design, because there has to be a way of balancing form and function harmoniously, actually creating an "ideal" Metropolis - one that embraces reality without distorting or escaping it altogether. Why stand on the 80th floor of a building to enjoy a view of the ocean when you could also swim in the ocean?