215that one’s gaze is directed toward the
endless panoramas of the sea (figure
102), while, on the other side, the
central void gives one a view through
a glass floor right down to the level
where trucks and cars drive on and
off and loading and unloading takes
place.
The tower of Babel tradition-
ally is a symbol of chaos and the con-
fusion of tongues (figure 103). God,
we read in the Bible, punished those
people whose arrogance was such
that they tried to build a tower that
would reach the heavens. He shat-
tered their common language into
mutually incomprehensible dialects,
so that they were forced to leave
their blasphemous project unfin-
ished. OMA turns the tower upside
down (see figure 96)—as we can see
from the design drawings, the space
helmet is a mimetic reinterpretation
of the tower in Breughel’s version.
Chaos and a confusion of tongues is still the theme, only here the different languages
are no longer seen as obstacles to completing the whole. Differences here are in-
corporated in a machine that functions with great flexibility, organizing and arranging
things, providing entertainment, and spewing everything out again. Human hubris is
not synonymous here with intolerable insolence and blasphemy, but is transformed
into a superior rationality that overcomes tribal infighting by orchestrating the differ-
ences in a drama of light, spectacle, and movement.
The building fits in flawlessly with the commission requirements: it is a finely
tuned instrument that enables the transition between different systems of transport
to take place with the utmost smoothness, so that the inevitable delays are mini-
mized by an overwhelming variety of excitement and diversions. The culture of con-
gestion has presented us with a kaleidoscope in which the public creates itself as
theater while at the same time making enthusiastic use of the entertainment on of-
fer. On the other hand, there is also a moment of quiet in the midst of this ballet of
movement. The silhouette of the space helmet forms a stable, motionless figure that
holds the whole complex fast with the force of a mooring post. The 70-meter-high
building forms an indisputable high point in a context that is dominated by a dock-
lands infrastructure and the banal developments along the Belgian coastline. It is a214
Office for Metropolitan
Architecture, project for a
Sea Terminal in Zeebrugge,
view of the maquette with
its transparent dome.
(Photo: Hans Werlemann.)101