Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Kafka's Castle, Like Hell, a Place You Can Visit

Richardo Bofill's "Castle", 1968
In 1926, Franz Kafka introduced us to K. and his sisyphean struggle against bureaucracy.  The Castle has become a cultural metaphor for how government can make the most simple of tasks impossible.  In the practice of law, one makes frequent visits to the Castle.  Most recently, I spent 4 months trying to obtain a payoff amount on a Medicare subrogation claim (basically, I was trying to give the government money I had collected for them).  Despite the clear understanding that the "Castle" is a bad thing, Ricardo Bofill  of Taller de Arquitectura designed and built an apartment building inspired by the Castle.  The project was as experiment in construction without a plan.  Instead of a plan, the design was a formula: a series of cubes radiating from the center with each cube representing a different space.
Hell on Cayman Is.

So, if you want to visit the Castle, then head to Sant Pere de Ribes in Spain.  Likewise, if want to visit Hell, head to the Caymans.  

2 comments:

  1. Wait, what are you doing with a picture of my childhood home? It was a little weird to live in 3500 square feet of Victorian splendor. Four people were totally lost in that labyrinth. Except the ghosts were real.

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  2. I forgot to mention that Bofill's "Castle" is in Sant Pere de Ribes, Barcelona, Spain. If you pass by this edifice to the sad tradition of urban architecture, take a photo. As for the ghosts... you have to be kind to ghosts.

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