Collapsed City

Currently, when the socio-economic circumstances seem to announce another change of cultural paradigm for the 21st century, the interest in the urban fact seems to have been renewed in architecture. However, this is no longer focused on models of growth and efficiency, as happened in the 70s. Nowadays the situation is quite different. The enthusiasm for the economic growth which had characterized late capitalism and much of the postmodern cultural production has disappeared, and has given place to some global unease on a possible system collapse. Once the economy does not grow, but threatens with its imminent breakdown, the architectural interests have shifted to urban environments like Tokyo, Detroit, Lagos or Rio de Janeiro; places that demonstrate, somehow, an urban culture of collapse.