Vidler: Warping and Death Cube K

Death Cube "K" is the creation of William Gibson in his Novel Idoru.   A building described as self healing  and bio-active.  Gibson describes as postapocolyptic world in which "Death Cube K" is  used in the judgement of humans.  The picture that is painted for the reader is one of a nightmare, "a world beyond hope" and a creation of places no one would want to be:  a Metamorphosis bar constructed of "acid etchecd metal...(and) roach lighting," or a room in which a machine that is "suggestive of antiqued dental equipment" engraves the sentence of guilt on the condemned victim's body.  

This is referred to as a Franz Kafka themed bar.  Franz Kafka was a novelist whose work is characterized by  its portrayal of an enigmatic and nightmarish reality where the individual is perceived as lonely, perplexed and threatened.   It is following this description that a connection is made to Morphosis' architecture and the fact that there may be a relationship to be made between Kafka's architectural and spatial descriptions and the recent urban and institutional projects of Morphosis.

It was not until halfway through this article when I reached the section on Tipping the Wall and The Burrow, that I began to grasp what I believe is the connection being made between "Death Cube K", Kafka, Morphosis, and spatial warping.  The intent of this article revolves around the concept of spatial warping, Vidler suggests that there are two types, one that is psychological and one that is artistic.  Psychological warping is a result of the human experience and proposes that space is not actually empty but is in fact full of disturbing objects and forms, and exists as a projection of the subject.  Morphosis is not necessarily creating architecture that mimics the nightmarish realm of Death Cube K or Kafka, but it is striving to create spaces in which visual laws are tested, limits are pushed, floors are horizontal walls, and gravity is questioned.   

In The Burrow, Morphosis digs into the ground implying no limit to height or depth.  It is here that Morphosis pulls away from the nightmares and disturbia of the Death Cube concepts of warped space.  A burrow once thought to be a space created by fear, a dungeon, in the world of Morphosis "celebrates the underground as another dimension of gravity free space, moving at will around ground zero without recognizing the transition."  An otherwise paranoid burrow becomes a sanctuary.    Morphosis appears to address the warping of space, and the psychological affect it has, but it does not surrender to the idea that warped space results in horror when left to the imagination of the individual.