Phantom Facade

The Street of the Future

 

“Why, beautiful being, do you shun me? Surely my face is not one to repel you. The nymphs love me, and you yourself look not indifferent upon me. When I stretch forth my arms you do the same; and you smile upon me and answer my beckoning with the like.” Again he reached out and again his love disappeared. Frightened to touch the water Narcissus lay still by the pool gazing in to the eyes of his vision.

 

Narcissus's fateful moment was of self-reflection, the act which sealed his death, as a result leading to death of Echo. Events which befell to both heroes of the story share common essence: the illusive reproduction of reality: Echo being forced by gods to repeat the speech of others, while Narcissus forced to stare at his own reflection captured by his beauty. The essence of this Greek myth rises the notion of phantom world of reflection and mirroring, in other words translation from very precise and real to a phantom imitation of the same reality. The world captivating with its promises and yet disappointing, like a desert mirage.

 

The next architectural evolution will go beyond the reduced idea of an envelope and the glass screen, it will translate physical world into phantom space using available technologies. Space of the street will no longer be defined by façades, instead we will live in cities made of light, reflections, projections, media, communication, always in a constant state of flux. In this Ultimate form, there will be no longer a necessity in preservation, a war between the old and the new will seize, and architectural space will ascend to a new surreal form with its own rules and design techniques. This translation has already began happening, most clearly in mega cities like Hong Kong where the image of the building is not defined by ornaments but by narcissistic reflection of itself.