Chrisonomicon

Tuesday, May 1, 2001

"As a child, I played in the gaps between buildings, ruins of buildings, fallow land, abandoned industrial areas, gravel pits and sand mines. Formed through misplanning, they were our empire, the empire of children. Ours was a dirty, unused place, with snakes, lizards, insects of every category and wild vegetation. Every city needs places without external laws. Empty spaces have their own laws.
     Vegetation is information. Children instinctively understand the language of natural vegetation. They can read it, if only they're allowed to climb the fence and play undisturbed.
     But the city gardeners arrive ? the eliminators of mystery, the killers of the empty spaces ? and declare everything dirty. They mow, pave and plant in zones where children and teenagers once played. They pave the paths people may walk upon and prohibit walking on the grass. 'Naturalness,' in this case, seems to be understood as 'unused-ness.' The grass and roses are always jammed in identical pots of cement and framed with perfectly straight paths, tarred without any fantasy or mystery.
     Naturalness is understood as the annihilation of spontaneity through perfect gardening."
?Jürgen X. Albrecht