“La Ville du globe captif represents an initial intuitive exploration of Manhattan architecture. […] If the essence of metropolitan culture is change—a world in a perpetual state of animation—and if the essence of the “city” concept is a readable sequence of different permanences, in this case just the three basic axioms on which La Ville du globe captif is based can enable architecture to reappropriate the territory of the metropolis for itself. The grid, or any other system subdividing the metropolitan terrain and setting down the maximum boundaries of the blocks, defines an archipelago of “cities within the city”. The more each “island” glorifies specific values, the more the unity of the archipelago as a system is strengthened thereby. The fact that the “change” is limited to the component “islands” guarantees the immutability of the system. Within the metropolitan archipelago, each skyscraper, without any real history, works out its own instant ‘folklore’” (Delirious New York), 1978.
