During the first years of New Babylon, Constant made a large number of ma-
quettes that come in a variety of forms. The first of them dates from 1956 and is
meant as a design proposal for a Gypsy encampment in Alba. An umbrella-shaped
transparent construction partially covers a space in which one can vaguely discern a
spiral shape. By means of screens and palings, the Gypsies were invited to create
their own site. The two spatiovores of 1959 and 1960 take up the circular form once
more, but here they are transparent, shell-shaped structures raised high above the
ground (figure 73). Inside the shell there are sections of floor made of perspex that
are suspended in the air by means of rods and wires. Judging by the size of the ob-
jects on the ground in the spatiovore of 1960, these maquettes must represent gi-
gantic constructions covering a considerable area and towering many meters above
the ground, being supported at only three points. There are no notes to indicate the
precise function of these gigantic shells, which one, it seems, could compare with
space stations that accidentally have landed on earth.
4
Architecture as Critique of Modernity72
Constant, symbolic representation
of New Babylon, 1969.