A metaphor : Pandora’s Box

VICTOR GRUEN

THE GRUEN EFFECT

PANDORA‘S BOX

A fitting metaphor for the current state of Liesing and the general goal of this project would be Pandora’s Box, a tale out of old greek mythology. In the old text books, when Zeus wanted to take revenge on Prometheus for giving people VG fire, which symbolizes godly knowledge that only belonged to the gods, he ordered Hephaistos to make a beautiful woman out of clay and named her Pandora. Zeus sent Pandora down to earth as a gift to Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus. He also sent a box alongside Pandora, gave them the key and warned them to never open the box. Pandora couldn’t contain her curiosity and one night decided to open the box when Epimetheus was asleep. And that was her greatest failure.

Out flew all sorts of evil and trouble that people had never known about. Sickness, hate, crime, envy and and all manner of evil. Pandora tried to catch all of these evils but it was too late and they all flew out into the world and were now a part of mankind. But the last thing that came out of the box was not bad or ugly at all, it was Hope.

The contents of Pandora’s Box were things that are now a part of every person’s life and in a way define what it means to be human, the imperfections of our personalities. Even though the story was a mythical one the implications are quite real. The box was a gift that was not meant to be opened, and that is how the current context of Liesing and our project come in.

We interpret the current situation in Liesing as the opened Pandora’s Box, literally and figuratively. The current configuration of the surface area is not very efficient with a lot of the surface and volume exclusive to vehicles and industry and a lack of clear transition from the residential to the industrial area. Not to mention that this lack of clear identification has led to other issues such as street prostitution at nights along Brunner Straße. The proposed solution is to close Pandora’s box, again both literally and figuratively.

The project is in all shape and form a box, a massive enclosed volume. A city of its own, made to optimize the functions of the industry and provide a meaningful attraction for the public. By closing the box, the inefficiencies of the area will be contained and solved, a strong border between the industrial and residential areas is formed and a lot of the surrounding area will be freed up to allow other functions to replace them. The closed box will be an anomaly, a versatile infrastructure where both industrial and recreational purposes can coexist, a city of Symbiosis.