165In terms of their form, the spatiovores are autonomous elements, something
that makes them quite exceptional within the overall framework of New Babylon.
The other maquettes are thought of rather as parts of sectors that can easily be
linked to each other. This is the case, for instance, with the maquette for the yellow
sector (1958), which is the one Constant described in Internationale Situationniste
(figure 74).^34 The construction is held up by a few massive pylons, with a sort of frame
construction propping up the floor and roof slabs. In one of the corners there is a cir-
cular structure that has become separate from the rest and which has six floor slabs
on top of each other with short gaps between them, in contrast to the two slabs of
the main structure. The whole is held together by a flat yellow roof slab that appar-
ently also explains the name of this section. On the different “stories” one can see
a collection of folded collapsible walls that are used to demarcate different spaces
(figure 75). It is not a matter of enclosed volumes here, but of spaces of various sizes
that interpenetrate.
Another striking feature are the maquettes of labyrinthine spaces, such as the
small labyrinth of 1959 or the mobile ladderlabyrinth of brass, perspex, and wood that
dates from 1967 (figure 76). This one reminds one of a wire maquette for one of van
Doesburg’s counterconstructions with their floating surfaces and interpenetrating
volumes. In the case of the maquettes for New Babylon, one can never clearly as-
cribe definite functions to specific parts of the building, or accurately calculate any
scales or other concrete details. Above all, the maquettes give a picture of an arti-
ficial world that is dominated by technology and in which artificial materials and in-
genious construction techniques are used to make a type of dwelling that exists
separate from the landscape and whose typical features are interpenetration and in-
determinacy. The atmosphere of an airport or a space station is often suggested,
something that occurs explicitly in a maquette of 1959, which Constant dubbed Am-
biance de départ. A nomadic mode of life is thus suggested that is made possible by
technology.
The real problem with the maquettes, however, is that the tension between
the larger structures that are fixed and the small-scale interior structures that are flex-
ible and labyrinthine is not always fully worked out. Constant himself declares that
“the real designers of New Babylon will be the Babylonians themselves,”^35 but this
cannot be seen very clearly in the maquettes. In this sense the maquette-sculptures
are a limited form of representation, and perhaps this was why Constant relied in-
creasingly on drawings and paintings as his work on New Babylon progressed.^36
The least appealing drawings are the architectural perspectives—”Bird’s eye
perspective of group of sectors I,” for example, which dates from 1964 (figure 69).
These drawings can be interpreted simply as fairly detailed depictions of large-scale
constructions that form a sort of chain that undulates through the landscape. This
simplicity means that they have far less poetic power and intensity than the other
sketches. A small group of drawings reminds one of technical blueprints. The em-164