THE POST PUBLIC CONDITION : EXPLORATIONS ON COCOONING PHENOMENA IN THE CONTEMPORARY CITY, IN THE AGE OF FEAR

Abstract

The 21st century city is in the midst of a massive transformation process. Driven by capitalism, super-efficiency , and breakneck pace of technological advancements , a new city and urban character is emerging. We can term this as, the post-public condition, where the city is inversed. People are retreating into their own enclaves. Perhaps, we see a rise of extreme individualism and cocooning phenomena in the city. 21st century urbanism of Tokyo city forms the focus of this investigation. It is interesting to use Tokyo as a subject of exploration of Metabolist ideas of a city of mutually independent, individual units, in today's context. These ideals half a century ago did not realize as they envisaged, but are appearing in a different form today. Thus central issues of the investigation is phenomena in the contemporary city that point towards trends of extreme individualism and cocooning, observing them as new metabolic manifestations; and how these phenomena reconfigure the city's urban structures and communities. Except, these trends embodies a darker reality today, triggered by contemporary fears. Recalling Kisho Kurokawa's Metabolist ideas, there is an uncanny relevance of capsules and individualism in the current context. We can start to draw certain relations between extreme individualism, encapsulation and the evacuation of the public realm. As Koolhaas succintly puts it, the 21st century is a culture of dissemination. Building on the dire projection of city development in Generic City, parallels between both city prophecies are explored to establish the theoretical context of this post-public condition. The post-public condition is defined by an emptiness pervading the city, emerging from an escape into idealized, hermetic interiors; retreat into privatized and individualized realms; and an urban plane inhibited in the most efficient way by people and processes. As cities are increasingly defined by fears, emptying and cocooning phenomena uncover a latent possibility of fear as a primary city design mechanism.