June 29, 2002
The Arcades Project
The Arcades Project
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| A Passage near St. Denis. 23 Juin. |
It was to be Benjamin's grandest project, the study of the arcades of Paris. A study of the specialized architectural spaces designed to suit an emerging form of popular consumer and commercial culture in Paris early in the 20th century.
So I used to wonder what this was about, not having read anything much about it of course, since I'd never seen many video games in Paris.
Well the arcades in question were these passages which are in many parts of the city but particularly concentrated in the 2nd admt. near the gate of St. Denis. I'm told the Catholic Church sold off a lot of land at the end of the 19th century, to raise money for something (sexual predation scandals?) and that enterprising builders went on a spree of passage construction.
The photo there is not so much of a street, it's through a gate in the middle of a block. It looks into a very large space mined out of the block itself. It's a narrow little pedestrian street with shops along both sides. Many of the passages are themed--so there's one with tons of tacky Indian restaurants (like 6th st in NY) and another one with lots of elaborate mirrors (just for aesthetics).
The passages are malls!
Too bad Benjamin couldn't stick around to finish his project and/or visit the Mall of America.
Posted by amol at June 29, 2002 09:12 AM