unique landmark with an unmistakable identity seen both from the sea and the land.
Its shape, something like that of a pebble that has been scoured by water,^118 fits in
perfectly with the eternal interaction of sea and shore.
The project is an embodiment of an ambiguity that can be seen at various lev-
els. It is a sorting machine as befits its function as a traffic confluence point, thus
making a contribution to the general trend toward the homogenization of space re-
sulting from the increasing dominance of networks.^119 At the same time, however, it
represents a unique locus so that this particular intersection within the network is dif-
ferent from any other, giving character to the nondescript, incoherent area that Zee-
brugge is at present. This effect is achieved by the machine’s being given a housing.
What is involved is a logic of instrumentality and control, but this logic is introduced
into a narrative that also contains other elements: the play of light and clouds, the
forces of wind and sea, the promises that shimmer with every crossing.
As Fredric Jameson remarks, Koolhaas uses the strategy of the envelope
here:^120 it is an amalgam of diversity, programmed or otherwise, packaged in a rigid
form that is not motivated by functional considerations. This form offers a structur-
ing context in which specialization and improvisation are given free play. The result
is that the congestion is boosted and margins are created within which unexpected
possibilities can also come about. In the Zeebrugge Terminal, this means that a
whole series of different groups of the public are brought together—from truck dri-
vers to casino visitors, from office
workers to conference participants.
All of them are included in one and
the same context, where they can
choose to be confronted with the
others or to be left alone. They have
the option of the popular allure of the
snack bars or the more fashionable
surroundings of the hotel lounge. By
bringing these differences together
within a spatial context that mediates
between them, this terminal achieves
a sort of “urbanity,” a culture of con-
gestion that, without eliminating the
differences, can function as a social
condenser, thus furthering the de-
sired aim of European integration.
In a rationalized and perfected
form the Sea Terminal takes over the
motif of Constant’s New Babylon
project: the provision of large-scale
infrastructures where the nomadic
4
Architecture as Critique of ModernityOffice for Metropolitan
Architecture, project for a Sea
Terminal in Zeebrugge, collage.102