Collage City

The idea of Utopia has always tantalized me, but I have never thought of Utopia as the absence of disorder and of chaos. I have sought order and stability in my daily habits and life. However I find that it is impossible to completely get rid of chaos, as Colin Rowe puts forth. I find a world without chaos inconceivable. The transition from a noisy and disorderly street into a calm and quiet chapel is all the more soothing because of the contrast. The two are certainly complementary and completely dependent on each other. However, because Rowe sets forth only general and broad examples like Versailles v. Hadrian’s villa, “hedgehog” v. “fox”, I’m not certain of his exact intentions when he suggests a “collage” of the two. Is it compromise and a merge of the two? Is it that the idea behind Hadrian’s villa can include the idea behind Versailles and not vice versa, therefore the former is more valid? For example, Rowe suggests something unsavory in the idea of a Utopia in which the ability to do wrong has been taken away. With his critique of the urban space in which too much attention has been paid to individualized objects and not enough to empty spaces I agree. However some very ordered city plans do take into consideration the empty spaces and use them in conjunction with the positively placed objects. Therefore does he see Hadrian’s villa and Rome as the best models for city planning? I personally would prefer a more fluid structure which can change according to circumstance. My interpretation of Rowe’s thesis is that he prefers elements of a city to be added as necessary and according to the principles of the present, which may or may not be compatible with the original city plan. I think his ideas on an abstract level works and entices, but how exactly would it be put to real use?