Rem Koolhaas - Delirious New York

A Retroactive Manifesto For The Future

written by Lee Jing Ee, 1001643329

Coney Island Broadwalk

Rem Koolhaas referring to himself as 'Manhattan's Ghost Writer', he closely observes the evolution of Manhattan, from an unformulated theory as an initial response to the instinctual vanity imposed by the Grid's block, to the cathartic realization that the culture congestion is a cure as opposed to a malady.

Manhattan is a product of unformulated theory and it serves as a factory of man-made experience. Once the theory is identified, it will become so ambitious and popular that it creates a fantasy living for the people. Perhaps of this, the performance and implications will have been consistently ignored and even suppressed by the architectural profession. As a result, Manhattan would become the proving ground for a 'Culture of Congestion' or 'Life in the Metropolis'. The way to promote 'Culture of Congestion' is the Grid's block. It is implemented to subdivide the island into a series of uniform blocks that overtook any of the landscape's natural contour. These blocks started from a two-dimensional basis transforms into three-dimensional future.

Could Kajang Metamorphose into Metropolis?

Bus stop at Jalan 7/1, Taman Kajang Mewah

"...the city is famous for its enourmous number of inhabitants. The city is a catalogue of models and precedents: all the desirable elements that exist scattered through the Old World finally assembled in a single place."- Delirious New York, pg17



Kajang is an ideal town that is rich in people, food and land. The enourmous number of inhabitants in 2010 would actually give the impact to the development of the city. Kajang city is lacking some important elements needed for development. Kajang should implement a manifesto that could really seek the mind of the locals and transform the needs into a virtual object. In order to accomplish the prosperity of the city, we should pay more attention to the living pattern and behavior of the locals by improving the quality of life. Kajang should become a factory of man-made experience to create a Utopia city and people could live in their fantasies in the future.