The Fifth Element
Without Walls: An Interview with Lebbeus Woods
New York Canyonlands
Watching The Fifth Element makes me yearn for the 1980’s-90’s hyper-urban fantasies of New York City illustrated by Delirious New York and The Fifth Element; both came about in 1997 very well could be the inflection point in the history of the urban condition. New York City’s metamorphosis from a city on the verge of bankruptcy and scary other, to a renaissance city of low crime, solvency and revitalization. Yet the theme which runs through all three examples is that the urban form itself will survive, and thrive, no matter if the city grows so large the bottoms are shrouded in fog (Element), or the East River is damed up (Woods) or if the New York Region is turned into an Arizona-like wasteland. While Taxi Driver was emblematic of the city’s demise, the hyper-urbanism illustrated in The Fifth Element is a warning of the perils of runaway urbanism.
